


EDEN - The Promised Land

by MinaChuuu



Category: (여자)아이들 | (G)I-DLE, Dreamcatcher (Korea Band), ITZY (Band), LOONA (Korea Band), TWICE (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Boarding School, F/F, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:07:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 42,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28273593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MinaChuuu/pseuds/MinaChuuu
Summary: Love is far from perfect, and so a perfect being cannot feel it. Is love worth enough for one to renounce perfection?When a mystical finishing school is cursed by the arrival of a mysterious new person, everyone will start questioning their knowledge of good and bad, rights and wrongs. But with The Master nowhere to be found, this time they'll only have each other to save themselves. Which side will you take?
Comments: 1
Kudos: 22





	1. The Crown of Glory, Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a work of fiction, inspired by and combining some of the following lores: LOONA’s YYXY, Twice’s More & More & I Can’t Stop Me, (G)-Idle’s OMG and Dreamcatcher’s Fly High. I have to be clear in that it isn’t religious, but it does play with some religious concepts. Without further to say, I hope you enjoy it! :)

_**Genesis 1:2:** “The earth was unformed and void, darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God hovered over the surface of the water.”_

I used to know everything.

My job was to listen to them, to make them happy. It was my duty to give answers to all their worries, and care for each one of them.

One day, one of them asked me if I had ever received a hug, or if I had ever kissed someone, or if I had ever… _loved anyone_. 

I thought I knew everything. 

How freezing water brushed against the skin, or how the reflection of the sun bounced right against my eyes, how the wind made the trees dance aggressively around me. 

I knew them, I knew why they happened. I just never really felt it for myself.

I raised my hands up, the hair in my forearms standing up reacting to the brush of the wind against them. Smiling at my hands, my fingers who were fidgeting around, raising them closer to my eyes, as I admired my new skin up close. I knew about bones, I knew about muscles. I just had never really used them for myself.

My attention span broke when suddenly, an orange colored bird decided to land right on top of my finger. 

“Hi!” I called it. The echoes of my voice bouncing around the wooded meadow. My voice. I now had a voice. 

The bird chirped back at me, the soft whistle rolling around the trees. I wanted to imitate its tone, but a silvery note came out of my throat, catching me by surprise. My new friend seemed to like it though, as it spread its wings and took off, soaring in circles around me. A light chuckle escaped my lips as I wondered at the sights of the garden. My bird friend landed on top of a rock at the edge of the lake and kept staring at me.

“You recognize me?” I wondered. “It’s still me. It’s just that I'm not _everywhere_ now. I’m just… here”

A sudden ruffle in the bushes behind us made us snap our heads to it. My bird friend took up to the sky swiftly.

“I’m telling you I just heard a laugh coming from this way.” A ringing voice broke through the dense green ahead of me, though I could barely hear their words.

“Yerim, we should really be heading back, I don’t want to get into trouble.” Another voice, softer but concerned, sounded even closer

“C’mon Mina, we’ll just get to the pond and right back, quickly.” The first voice protested.

“Mina’s right, since morning the teachers have been distraught. I don’t want to imagine what they would do if they find us out of our quarters.” A third voice, now even closer, argued.

“It will be only a minute, Yeji.” The silhouettes of three girls emerged from the shadows of the forest ahead of me, with the brunette girl leading the other two. “We’ll be back in no ti-”

The three girls come to an abrupt stop when their eyes locked on my figure laying in the middle of the pond. 

“Hello there!” The brunette girl, wearing a purple neck bow, approached me, with a bright smile but not enough to hide the confusion in her eyes. She stopped and crouched at the edge of the lake. “My name is Yerim, and those over there are Minari and Yeji”

The blonde girl, which fashioned a mint colored skirt, and the gray haired girl, waved at me with puzzled expressions.

“Should we take her to the Principal?” Mina mumbled. 

“It would have seemed like the logical answer” Yeji Inquired. “But I’m not risking my guts by going near them today”

“What happened today?” There was a slight raise in the tone of my voice, I got to accept, I'm still not accustomed to hearing myself. And by the looks on the girls faces, it was something new to them too.

“Let’s just say the teachers lost all communication with The Master, and without them…” Yeji closed her distance with me as she approached. “Some of the teachers can get a little tough.”

“Especially the prefect.” Mina stammered, wary of the surrounding forest. “So we should be heading back. Now.”

“We can’t just leave her here!” Yerim protested.

“Of course not dummy! Let’s just take her and head back to the dorms. We’ll figure what to do later there.” 

Yerim and Yeji extended their hands to me as they helped me out of the pond. My wet robes hung from my body, slapping my skin with every step I took. But the instant the girls stopped the support, my legs collapsed.

“Are you okay!?” Yerim gasped and kneeled by my side.

“I am, I am. It’s just… weird to walk” I joked. The three girls looked at each other perplexed at my words. “I mean, I had been floating in _there_ for a while.”

Yeji put my arm around her neck and helped me up my feet, so we made our way quickly to the meadow in the middle of the forest.

“How long were you in there… Oh my, WE DIDN’T EVEN ASK YOU FOR YOUR NAME, HOW RUDE”. Yerim gasped.

“Hey Yerim, I would really appreciate it if you focused on not crashing with any tree right now.” Yeji commented as her breathing started getting heavier. “Running now, questions later”

The latter nodded and turned around facing our path. The more we came close, the leaves on the trees started being from brighter and brighter hues of green. Plants appeared in all different crazy cheery colors and the logs on the trees started filling with beautiful flowers. Bird chirps could be heard all around and butterflies adorned the air surrounding us. 

But somehow, it just felt like we were running away from it all.

As the trees cleared out, a big Victorian-esque, light yellow structure, with white ornaments, standing in the middle of a huge meadow filled my view. We stopped at the border of trees that surrounded the building. The girls scanned the area meticulously while still hidden in the shadows.

“There.” Mina pointed to smoke, floating away from the right far corner of the building. “They are still in the office, we surround Dorm Two to the left and we can enter through the doors aside of the Etiquette classroom”

“We can get you to Dorm One. Yeji and I will take care until we know what to do.” Yerim reaffirmed to me with a smile across her face. “You’ll be fine.”

Mina gave the signal and we ran across the green grass separating us from the building. With Yeji holding me, I could progressively figure out how my legs worked, to not hold the girls back. We hurried around the base of the yellow walls until we reached a heavy wooden door. Yerim and Mina opened them as Yeji helped me through. 

The bright light of day fell around the inside as the grand courtyard that stood in front of us. But I could only catch a glimpse of that, until I was yanked away again, rushed to our destiny. Cutting the corner to the right, another door stood up closed. Yerim hurried to open it, and Yeji carried me inside. 

“Get Nayeon, she’s been longer than us here. Maybe she can help us.” Mina stood by the door, signaling Yerim. “I’ll go get Jeongyeon! And keep it _low-key_!”

“Got it _Unnie_!” Yerim answered and then disappeared through a door to her right.

Yeji laid me down in a soft, comfortable brown chair and quickly scanned around.

“Stay here okay? I’ll go get you some clothes.” And with those words, Yeji disappeared from my line of sight. 

My eyes started wandering around the room, taking in the whiteness of the walls and adorned with dark wooden columns and the white floor tiles, every wall so impeccable, shining. Except for some gray-ish brown smudges on the floor. They came from the door right to… to my feet. I took one of them up and the bottom part of it was even darker than the marks on the floor. 

I touched it and a little bolt of energy coming from the action made me chuckle. I tried again and to the same results. I didn’t get exactly why, but it made me… smile. After some while of doing it, something inside told me to stop, it didn’t hurt, it just started feeling _not_ right. 

My laugh died down and as my vision cleared up, my eyes started forming the silhouette of someone in front of me. The wide-eyed girl sat on the white couch facing me with an open book resting on her thighs. A yellow oversized sweater draping on her body. She seems paralyzed, no blinking, or words coming out of her mouth.

“Hi!” I broke the silence. The girl jumped in her own spot, blinking repeatedly as to regain focus. “What’s you na…”

“WHO STAINED THE FLOOR IN- AAAAAAAAH!” Another girl popped to my right, making eye contact with me. A red bow resting on her collar, with straight flocks of caramel colored hair dropping around her shoulders. “WHO ARE YOU?”

“Oh great! You’ve met Hyunjin and Kim Lip! I’m glad you are already making friends!” Yerim rushed back to my side with her characteristic smile. “On that subject matter, I want you to meet Nayeon!”

Another girl, with a shoulder bob brown haircut, approached me, with little front bunny teeth peeking through her bright, comforting smile. Nayeon gently rested a hand on my shoulder and crouched to meet my eyes.

“Hey darling, we’re gonna try to help you,” She echoed. “Can you please tell us your na-”

The door to the dorm swang open, Mina barging in with two girls following her.

“Yerim! Are you okay?” One of the girl’s voices, deep and husky, resonated across the room. This girl, which had a little freckle resting just below her right eye, breezed to Yerim’s side. 

“Don't worry, Unnie!” Yerim cheered, her upward attitude contrasting the confused and intrigued mood of the room. “Everything’s perfect!”

“Good…” The girl suddenly slapped Yerim’s arm. “I was worried! I saw you going to the outer ring of the forest and I don’t want you to get into trouble!”

“But I’m okay!” She laughed. “Besides, I wouldn’t have gotten in trouble alone!”

“That… really doesn’t calm me down Yerim-ah!”

Mina stepped up to me and addressed Nayeon. “Unnie, I couldn’t get Jeongyeon, but Sana here wanted to give us a hand”

“Nayeon _Unnie!_ ” Sana, that fashioned long, orange hair and an indigo bow adorning her hair, hurried by our side. 

“Hi baby!” Nayeon bowed her head at Sana. The younger girl wrapped her arms around the older’s shoulders, giving her a light kiss on the cheek, which Nayeon received with a sour face.

Sana turned to face me. Her brown, sparkling eyes piercing through my skull, her smile shining as she examined every inch of my face. I felt heat rising to my cheeks. It wasn’t until I realized she was mouthing something to me that my five senses returned to the room.

“Huh?...” My eyes widened, as silence followed around the room. My head scanned , around to realize that at least ten pairs of eyes, known and still unknown, stared at me curious.

“I’m Sana!” Sana giggled at my confusion. She placed her hand over mine, and gently brushed her thumb back and forth. “Welcome!”

“S… Sana?” I managed to stammer out. I swallowed back my nerves, her voice seemed so familiar to me, but I couldn’t grasp on why.

“Yes!” Sana cheered. Her smile brightened even more. “What’s your name?”

“I am-”

“They’re coming!” Mina, who all this time had been peeking through a window facing the courtyard, announced urgently.

Two pairs of arms quickly raised me up from the chair and carried me to a corner of the room, where a door opened at my back.

“Wait!-” I pleaded, as my eyes did not abandon the now startled Sana.

“Just stay here.” The girl who scolded Yerim guided me inside a dark and narrow closet, only lighted thanks to the opened door. “It won’t be lo-”

The louvered door closed behind her as she turned around, but just when she was about to open it, the sound of the dorm’s heavy main door filled the air. Peeking through the panels, a light gasp escaped from her mouth as she took a step back and bumped against my body.

“Sorry!” She gasped but continued whispering. “Looks like we’ll have to… share some space.”

“But I need to speak to-”

“SHhhhhh!” The girl put her hands above my mouth. “We’re just trying to help, but you need to cooperate with me right now.”

I nodded frantically as she slowly lowered her hands. I stared at her hardly visible doe eyes for a while, I noticed a slight pink tone covering her cheeks, my head tilting when my eyes scanned her and discovered one more little freckle close to the corner of her left eye. But that’s when she broke eye contact, and lowered her head. The closet was so narrow that I could maybe only extend my arm in front of me, if I hadn’t had someone else with me here. At my side, they were shelves filled with bottles of extremely fragrant liquids, smells so strong that my nose and my appetite deduced they were probably not drinkable.

“I’m Heejin, by the way.” She broke the silence and whispered at the floor. “Might as well know each other if we are going to be-”

My hands instinctively rose up to her mouth, imitating her past gesture. Her eyes vaulted up to meet mine, her forehead puckering. My head leaned closer to the door as my listening could lightly make up the words being said on the other side.

“Young ladies, this was no time for rejoicing or social gatherings of such, you were instructed to stay in your designated dormitories until said otherwise.” A monotonous voice scolded the girls on the other side of the door. “Miss Minari, I got to admit, I did not expect this kind of behavior coming from a top student. Consider this as the only warning. If this attitude persists, I will be the first to give you a strike. Understood?”

“Yes Mr, I am profoundly sorry, this behavior will not repeat itself.” Mina’s sweet voice pledged.

“And as for you Miss Sana, you have marked this as your first strike.” The voice sounded threatening, making me peek my eyes through the panels. I could not see the figure speaking, but managed to figure out the white silhouettes of girls dressed in white, all turning to where the sound came from. “You do not want to get the five strikes. Go back to your dormitories at once.”

“Yes Mr. Azrael” Mina and Sana’s voices resonated through the knife-cutting silence in the room. I could figure out their blonde and orange hair through the panels, only to lose sight of them just before hearing the main door opening and closing.

I need to go follow Sana. I need to know why she is so familiar. Why did she make my body feel… _that way._

I didn’t notice my hand was already instinctively on the handle, until Heejin’s hand was on top of it. My head spinned to face hers, as she shook her head, her breathing uneasily speeding up. I gently raised my hand from the handle and extended them both to her. 

“Take them.” I whispered.

“What?” Even in the low light of the closet I could figure her face turned completely red as her eyes narrowed in confusion.

“Take them,” I repeated. “I don’t know how to control them.”

Without changing the expression in her face, she slowly raised her hands to meet mine. Her fingers brushed my palms, as her thumbs placed themselves over them. Heejin’s face, breath and both our arms started relaxing after some seconds, and with the silence again surrounding us, the voices on the other side of the door could be heard again.

“... We do not have an approximate estimate on how much time it will take to fix this issue. Regardless, this does not mean we get to run around with no disciplinary measures on hand. Mr. Michael will be addressed as the higher power in the meanwhile, with the rest of your professors continuing their lessons by tomorrow morning, in the already established, normal schedule.” The disembodied monotonous voice, now with a softer approach, explained. “Since we do not know the severity extent of the broken connection, as a preventive measure for your security, you must not step outside of the complex’s walls. The balcony and the courtyard are safe if you wish to take fresh air. But the outer gardens and the forest are now prohibited until this issue is fixed. Understood?”

The collective agreements of all the girls chorused the air.

“Miss Yerim...” The voice returning to the threatening, harsh sound from the beginning made my eyes volt again through the panels. “Your shoes are revolting. Assuming the mess in the floor is of your authorship, I will need you to clean them as soon as possible. Continuing such a distasteful behavior will grant you a strike.”

“Yes, Mr. Azrael. I will have them clean in no time.”

“You already had more than enough time to clean them.” I spotted Yerim’s silhouette through the panels, shrinking in her place. “Assuming your shoes got dirty from the morning activities and not because you decided to disobey the curfew in effect.”

“I… Sorry- Mr. I…” Yerim stuttered.

“Mr. Azrael, If I may, Yerim spend noon folding laundry with me.” Yeji’s voice cut the tension in the room.

“Very well. I consider it appropriate to remind you all, continued messy habits could grant you all a strike.” The gravelly voice threatened the room. “... As well as lying.”

The collective agreements of understanding of the girls filled the air again. 

“Having said all of this, I will excuse myself ladies, hoping the rest of the dormitories do not disappoint me as severely. I will pay a visit in the week to supervise if the necessary changes have been executed.” By this time, the monotonous voice sounded like it had been talking for hours. “Supper will be served at seven at the dinner hall. Have a nice afternoon ladies.”

“Good afternoon Mr. Azrael.” The girls chorused. The main door creaked open, as a deafening silence filled the air. 

A loud gasp of air was felt collectively when the door slammed closed. Footsteps rushed closer to us, when a hand on the other side started turning the handle. Heejin rushed to take her hands off of mine. Bright light filled my eyes as the door opened, revealing a girl, no taller than my nose, smiling at Heejin.

“How was the closet _Unnie_?” The girl's voice was surprisingly low and rough.

“Humid, narrow and a little awkward.” Heejin sneered as she got out, extending her limbs and stretching her neck. “Remind me next time, I discovered I’m not fond of little spaces.” 

I followed Heejin and imitated her gestures. I wouldn’t call the experience of being inside there as horrible, but it was definitely uncomfortable.

“Heejin, you should go. Azrael entered dorm two. If you hurry he won’t punish you as hard as Mina and Sana Unnie.” Kim Lip proposed.

“Thank you _Unnie._ ” Heejin nodded and she started stepping towards the door, but came to a sudden stop and turned when her hand was already at the handle. Her eyes met mine as a smile appeared on her face. “Take care…”

And as soon as she crossed the door, I felt all the eyes in the room staring at me. Kim Lip and Hyunjin glared at me with their brows furrowed. Nayeon, Yeji, the little girl that opened the door of the closet and other 4 girls from which I still didn’t know the names glazed with a mix of confusion and intrigue. And then there was Yerim, her smile completely contrasting the room’s atmosphere.

“Everything’s fine!” Yerim exclaimed to me. “We just need to make a plan now to-”

“You need to go.” One of the girls which I didn’t know harshly interrupted. “You already got us into way too much trouble.”

“Soojin is right.” Kim Lip stepped aside the latter girl. “We shouldn’t be risking more strikes!”

“But what if she just needs our help? Are you just going to throw her out there? When all of this is happening?” Yerim defended me.

“But what if maybe she is the reason this started happening?” Soojin counterattacked.

“Now you all stop there!” Nayeon stepped up and in the middle of both sides. “Here’s what we are gonna do.”

The rest of the girls dropped their defensive stance and listened to the oldest.

“Usually, new arrivals get here by six, which leaves approximately half an hour to make this work. Just when Azrael gets back in the office, someone will go ask Yuna, from dorm 2, for her ceremonial gown.” Nayeon laid the plan quickly to the rest of the girls. “Kim, I will need you to help me tailor it. I’m sure it will still be a large fit to her.”

“Yes _Unnie._ ” Kim acknowledged. 

“As for you…” Nayeon turned around to face me. “When the clock hits six, I want you to be in the center of the fountain in the courtyard, right on the pedestal and ring the bell. From that moment on, you start from cero. You don’t know anything, or any of us.”

I nodded unnerved. The look in their eyes only signaled that they wanted me out of there as soon as possible. 

“Good, I need you to go wash yourself.” Nayeon commanded, “Yeji, can you be so kind to help her up?”

“Sure _Unnie_ ” Yeji bowed as she signaled with her hand to follow her. 

If barely a while ago I could walk, I took my fair share of time going up the flight of stairs. Yeji once again put my arm around her neck to help me up faster. The main living room was at the center, down and could be visible from upstairs, behind a dark wooden rail. Nayeon had sat on the white couch to catch some air, as Kim hurried to clean the chair and Yerim headed to a room below us. The rest of the girls stood there, perplexed, looking at each other for answers.

“C'mon, we are almost there.” Yeji’s voice made me turn my head around back to our path.

Just in time, I caught a glimpse of a door different to the others. To our right, a wooden door seemingly normal, but it emitted a dark, purple smoke from it. A stained cooper plaque hanging from an old nail at its center which read _DO NOT ENTER._

“Why not?” I stopped abruptly to look at it, Yeji halting in her steps to catch up with me.

“I have been asking the same question for a long time.” She looked up at the plaque. And then to me. “But even if I wanted to know, it’s protected by a spell they put into it.”

My hand started reaching for the knob, before urgently being grabbed by Yeji.

“Don’t. It will hurt.” Her pleading eyes looked at mine with distress, a comforting smile appeared on her lips, while she put her other hand on top of mine. “Let’s get you cleaned.”

We continued our path to the bath, but not before we could open the door, my ears caught a snippet of something Nayeon was telling to the other girls, who thoughtfully listened.

“There is nothing to worry about, as long as we are all here and we are alright. She’s just a new girl discovering her way, just like we all were once. So treat her as such.”

* * *

I followed every detail Nayeon disclosed to me. After cleaning myself, and being dressed in a beautiful white gown that came down to my feet, I went out and climbed up the fountain carefully. Realizing it is kind of painful to climb if you just got used to walking that same day. Trying not to get the gown wet, as instructed, I stepped on the pedestal in the middle. Nayeon’s instructions came to an abrupt stop. 

That’s when the clock in the tower in front of me rang, with its hand forming a perfectly vertical line. I did the only thing left to do.

I rang the bell. 

The balcony in front of me was rapidly occupied by a tall figure, all hooded in a white gown. It quickly came down the stairs and floated all the way to face me. Bowing, they extended their hand, his grasp was warm, safe. Now out of the fountain, the figure joined me as we walked together across the courtyard, entering to a great hall though a pair of heavy and very ornamented doors that opened by themselves as we walked by. He carefully helped me up a white round platform situated right in the middle of the room.

And there I was, my eyes glazing and wandering around the room, taking in every ornament ant painting in the walls, the columns and the ceiling.

“It is quite fascinating.” The voice of the mysterious hooded figure echoed through the space, interrupting my thoughts. “The Master created all of this for us. Made with the purpose of reaching our highest potentials as divine creatures. And now you are part of it too.”  
The hooded figure, raised his hands to his face, and grabbed the edges of their gown, slowly bringing the hood down to his shoulders. The action revealed a streak of straight, long white hair coming down, and a soft, yet sturdy pale face behind it. They offered me a comforting smile.

“Let me introduce myself.” The figure bowed again before me. “My name is Michael, and I am head of the institute. Now I would like you to meet the prefect, your new instructors, and your designated tutor, who will be your guide through the system.”

The doors at the right opened to reveal 6 tall figures all hooded in white, with Yerim fashioning a brand new white gown and her usual bright smile, between them, walking in a line towards us. I suppressed my desire for waving at Yerim, as Nayeon words ‘ _From that moment on, you start from cero. You don’t know anything, or any of us’_ resonated in my head. The figures surrounded me from all angles as Michael signaled Yerim to stand on their right.

“To my left.” Michael signaled to the figure. “I would like you to meet Prefect Azrael”

I gulped hard at hearing the name. The figure let their hood down, gracefully, A pale face with slicked blonde hair raised as their eyes penetrated against mine. But it wasn’t until they spoke that a real shiver traveled all the length of my spine.

“It is my honor to assist you, aiding you in achieving an utterly perfect condition of your existence.” The voice was eerily familiar; monotonous, rough and a bit threatening. Azrael bowed before me as I mimicked. He only stared at me, with a puckered forehead, and unchanging expression.

“Next, I would like you to meet your new instructors.” Michael continued. The remaining figures all took their hoods down, revealing 5 more new faces to remember. “You will have the pleasure to know them more personally as you follow through their lessons.”

They all coordinated bowing as I followed the gesture.

“And finally. From the moment a new soul arrives, an oldest and more experienced one is ready to help them in their path to perfection. Nonetheless, we all have something to learn from new people, and as such, a designated tutor becomes a new teacher, as well as a new kind of student.” Michael took their hand to Yerim’s back, while she looked up at them with a hint of pride and excitement on her face. “I would like you to meet yours, Yerim.”

Yerim bowed to me with the brightest smile I had ever seen come from her. 

“As a new designated tutor, Yerim will guide you and welcome you with your first lesson.” Azrael signaled Yerim to step closer to me and soon she followed. “One of a proper way of greeting and introducing yourself.”

Yerim closed her eyes and took a deep breath when approaching me, she advanced the two steps up the round platform where I was standing.

“Good afternoon! My name is Yerim. I am very pleased to meet you and excited to accompany you throughout this new journey of yours.” But there was something odd. This did not sound like the Yerim I knew before. Her tone was plummy, honeyed. This was not the girl I knew. “A good introduction requires good, steady and direct eye contact, making sure your posture is correct is also of utmost importance.”

I stretched and corrected my back and positioned my stance to imitate Yerim.

“Good job! Now, extend your hand softly, with your palm against the floor, vertically”

Following her instructions I slowly raised my arm and positioned my hand ready.

“Perfect! With those three, simple observations, all it is left is to smile, and making sure the eloquence, volume and speed can be understandable, you can now say your name”

I knew my name. And I knew everyone knew it too. But right now I was being presented with the only opportunity I had of knowing what it felt… _to feel_. And I was not going to let that be taken away from me, not by name, not by its power and not by its expectations. But that could only mean one thing, so I let my instincts decide it for myself.

“Eden. My name is Eden.” I smiled confidently as my hand embraced Yerim’s extended hand. 

Yerim’s silhouette lighted up, as if her body emitted its own light. But when I looked down at our interlocked hands, I knew I had the same effect going on in my body.

A warming sensation traveled around my body, fabricating an even wider smile on my face. I turned to face Yerim who I understood, felt the same way I did. 

I scanned the faces around me. The instructors had a faint smile on their face, with Michael bearing the widest. All except one. Azrael. Who did not dare take his glare away from me. His forehead looked even more creased than before. But the sudden raise of Michael's arms stole my attention as they rejoiced on my arrival. But it was a joy that felt more rehearsed than genuine.

“Welcome to the Promised Land. Eden!”


	2. The Crown of Glory, Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After her untimely entrance, Eden must explore all the new experiences The Promised Land has to offer, while simultaneously, discover the real purpose of her arrival. But with all the rules keep imposing barriers around her, the path to her answer now seems foggier than ever.

“So they really started a war over some baked goods?” Yuna scuffed. “Humans are really… something.”

“I would go to war for a croissant.” Ryujin managed to tease with a completely straight face.

“I don’t think you really understood what the _Pastry Wars_ really were.” Chaeryeong articulated as we walked through the balcony on our way to the next class. 

We had just finished History class, so Ryujin, Chaeryoung, Yuna and I were heading to our next lesson, with Yerim escorting me around. She had her arm linked with mine as she guided my way through the complex. The only time she wasn’t linking arms, or smiling at me was when we were in the middle of a lesson and that only because our desks were around six feet apart. Yerim seemed to enjoy being a designated tutor, as much as I was thankful that it was her, after everything that happened.

Even though I remembered the last words Nayeon told everyone, I couldn’t help but notice almost everyone from Dorm 1 had a distinct way of looking at me. Some eyes were curious, some worried and some I even dare say afraid. Yeji looked at me with caring eyes and there was Yerim being Yerim. But there was one girl, one which I remember seeing there the first day but never knew her name, who smiles and waves to me every time we cross paths.

No one from Dorm 2 seemed to know about anything except for Mina, who I found she still wasn’t very talkative.

And from Dorm 3, my designated dorm, only Heejin and Sana seemed to know, and they acted like total opposites about it. 

If it wasn’t because her roommate was Ryujin, who I had in almost all my classes, I was positive Heejin was trying to avoid me.

On the other side of the spectrum, Sana completely dismissed ignoring what happened and the moment I opened the door to settle in my room, she started barding me with tons of questions. It wasn’t until my roommate Hyejoo opened the door, that with solely a stare from her eyes, Sana rushed out of my room. Leaving me again with all questions and no answers.

But today, the sun was high in the sky, filling with light the courtyard, its fountain and the giant tree in the middle of it. The position of the sun signaling the second afternoon since my very chaotic first day in the Promised Land. 

So far, Art, History and Literature seemed like interesting and even fun subjects. Etiquette was by far the most boring of them all, but there was a particular one that I seemed to enjoy, Music.

“And we are here!” Yerim broke my train of thought with her cheery tone. Leaning against the wall of the music room. “I can’t believe you are already part of a choir!”

“What do you mean?” I questioned, surprised at her excitement.

“Some of us had to train a while to be admitted to a choir.” Chaeryeong added as she turned around, tired of the discussion her two friends were having about bread and war behind us. “But if you heard her voice Yerim!”

“I’m still getting used to it myself.” I felt heat rising in my face as a smile was drawn across it. “I’ll get the hang of it soon.”

“And that will be even sooner, if you get to class on time.” The familiar fruity voice of Mx. Raphael echoed behind my back. As I turned my back, a smirk adorned their mild familiar face. “Come inside ladies, rehearsal is about to start.”

“Yes Mx. Raphael.” We echoed in response. 

Chaeryoung entered first, and I stopped in the doorframe, turning back to Yerim. “I will head to the library after choir, do you want to…”

“Yes! I’ll catch up” Yerim excitedly didn’t even let me finish my sentence when I got my response.

“Great, I’ll see you later.”

Entering the room, there were 6 music stands ready for us. Chaeryeong, Yeji, who still looked at me with caring eyes, and Lia, a girl I met in this class were already behind three of them. They both waved at me as I stepped closer and stood behind the farthest from the door.

“Okay, picture this. If I offer you croissants, eclairs, AND macaroons?” Ryujin debated as she and Yuna hurried through the door.

“I would have to think about it.” Yuna consented as she took her place behind a music stand.

“ _I would have to think about it ._ Fine. Starve, I guess.” Ryujin exaggerated Yuna’s response back, taking her place in the music stand beside me as the corner of her mouth quirked up when she turned to me. “You would defend a good French pastry. Would you Eden?”

“I…” My eyes darted everywhere around the room searching for something to answer. Ryujin’s face pleaded for me to side with her, but in reality… “I have never eaten those before.”

“WAIT WHAT!?” Ryujin exploded with disbelief all over her body.

“Miss Ryujin, please. Get out your score sheets, today we are reviewing a new arrangement for page number 23.” Mx. Raphael, already behind their piano in the front of the class, interrupted. 

As a sweet harmony started coming out from the piano, my mind drifted away from the room and out the window. 

There were still so many things I had not tried yet in my existence, even if I knew them. With my schedule now full of lessons and chores, I had less time to search for the girl, she who asked me if I had ever _felt love_. 

Because as with everything, I knew _love_. But with more and more things I discovered, the less sure I was that I had ever felt it. Yet I had almost no leads, no clues. 

The sun started tilting in the sky, up above from the ring of trees my eyes surveilled across the window. Its light shining bright against my score sheet that I kept turning, imitating the other girls. I knew there were notes coming out of my mouth, but at this point I was working in autopilot as my mind wandered around.

“What do you think, Miss Eden?” Mx. Raphael broke through my daydreaming as I stared back at the classroom, startled.

“Excuse me, can you repeat the question?” I mumbled. 

“Maybe next week I will start considering you as another main vocalist.” Mx. Raphael stood from behind the piano, gently gesturing their hands to me. “That is, if you show me you can be focused on class Miss.”

“Yes Mx. Raphael.” I responded.

“Very well. I will see you tomorrow, hopefully you do not forget the new arrangement.” The teacher navigated its way towards the door, and then gently opened it. “This concludes our rehearsal today. Have a nice afternoon ladies.”

“Good afternoon Mx. Raphael.” We echoed.

The other girls packed their stuff up, and one by one headed to the door, bowing as they passed in front of the teacher. I suddenly felt a tug on my arm, yanking my head on its way, Ryujin offered me a calm smirk.

“Hey, we are going to the balcony to catch some air. Would you like to come with us?” Ryujin asked.

“Thanks, I’m seeing Yerim on the library. But maybe some other day.” I answered. “How about tomorrow?”

“Sounds good!” Ryujin pulled up her bag as she got ahead of the music stand. “I’ll see you later at the dorm then.”

I smiled and nodded in return as I watched her disappear through the door. Following, I packed my stuff up and started moving towards the door. 

“Hey, Miss Eden.” Mx. Raphael called my name just as I was about to exit the music room. I turned around to face them as they continued to speak. “Well on time, the questions that shall be answered, will be. But rest assured, you are safe and sound in here.”

My head blanked as I stared into their bright eyes, full of what I would like to call tranquility, but a feeling well inside my gut felt it as a threat. A threat not to question too much. 

“Thank you, Mx. Raphael.” I bowed, before urgently spinning on my feet and rushing out of there.

With my eyes glued on the ground and my arms around my books for today, I sprinted through the corridors towards the stairs. I even heard someone calling my name in the distance, or maybe I had just imagined it. But I was so focused on getting to the library, I can’t say if it was real or my mind had made it up.

Slightly trotting down the stairs, and past the courtyard to the right, my hand reached for the library’s door handle, opening enough to make my way through. As my breath evened, my eyes scanned the place for Yerim, but found no sight of her on the lounges or the study tables. 

_Might as well just wait for her here._ I headed to the bookstands on my left looking for a light read while hanging around. 

The shelf in front of me carried a metal plaque, engraved with the label _Controversial for Humans_ on it. 

Among many titles my eyes read along its collection, The Art of War, 1984 and The Catcher in the Rye were good contenders to steal my attention. Other books that caught my attention for totally the opposite reason was one titled Lolita, and another titled Twilight.

My hand went up to one titled The Chocolate War. Because how bad can a book about chocolate be? Until another title, right to its left caught my eye.

“ _Discours sur les sciences et les arts…”_ I read under my breath and to myself, pulling the book out of the shelf. “By Jean-Jacques Rousseau...”

“That one is good!” A husky voice chanted on my right ear, making me pounce in surprise, fumbling the book to the ground. “Oh shoot, sorry!”

The girl beside me reached for the book at the same time I did, our fingers lightly brushing at the action. Large wavy flocks of black hair blocked my view of the girl, a light chuckle escaping from her as she handed the book back to me. 

“And I thought this only happened in romance novels.” She removed the hair from her face, to reveal a jolly smile adorning it. In front of me stood that girl from Dorm 1 that didn’t look at me like a strange bug. “You must be Eden, right?”

“You know who I am?” I questioned as I nodded sheepishly at her, while my hand fidgeted around my hair.

“Everybody knows! You caused quite a stir on your first day, but I didn’t get to say hi” She extended her hand to me as her other arm held on to the books against her chest. “I’m Yuqi! Pleased to meet you.”

My hand took hers in a gentle handshake. “I’m sorry I caused you guys too much trouble that day.”

“Nonsense!” She chuckled as she separated her hand from mine and balanced her books. “That was nothing but a small warning, it’s just Mr. Azrael is scary by himself. But you’ll see warnings are quite common around here.”

“Then what do you mean with _quite a stir_?” I interrogated, as that sentence lingered in my head from the moment it left her lips.

“Well, for instance, you arrived the day the connection to The Master broke off.” She tilted her head, with a curious and playful smirk and glowing eyes. “That in itself opens up a lot of questions.”

“Like what questions?” I tried to make her continue. Every sentence coming off of Yuqi’s mouth made me more and more curious about everything. Maybe she was the one helping me in this inquiry.

“Well, one I’ve heard is that maybe The Master does not exist and it’s just a tool the Teacher’s used to control us. Another is that you wandered lost from an outside world until you somehow arrived here…” Her eyes strayed around the shelves as she continued retelling. Suddenly a smile crossed her face as she furrowed her forehead. “I even suggested _you_ could be The Master…”

“I… I-” My eyes widened at the phrase, as I felt a knot tightening in my throat. 

“I know, it’s kinda ridiculous.” Yuqi noted with a light giggle. I for once, was relieved that her sight was still over the books around us and not on me. Her smile started fading as she took a deep breath. “Soojin Unnie may be right. Maybe The Master doesn’t care enough…”

_Maybe The Master doesn’t care enough…_

“Anyway, I’m so sorry. We’ve just met and I already dumped everything over you. It’s just that…” Yuqi shoulders slumped as her head bowed. Now apologetic, she trailed on in her own words again. “It’s just that there wasn’t much stuff happening around here lately, and then you arrived so _unconventionally_ … I don’t know.”

“It’s okay…” My mouth could only form those words, but I assumed the tone came out sufficiently comforting as Yuqi raised her face to meet mine again. “I too have a lot of questions about whatever is happening here.”

“Maybe I can help you out with some of them, and you can help me.” Yuqi’s smirk made a comeback as she took a step closer to me. “We can go grab some tea later and, this time, I promise to let you talk too. How about next week, this time?”

“Sounds good to me.” I agreed. “I’ll get it cleared up.”

“I have to go, I’ll see you around?” She adjusted her bag and books, looking over me at the clock at the center of the library. 

“See you around.” I felt a slight smile forming on my lips, amused by the enthusiastic Yuqi in front of me. 

She started walking backwards towards the exit, not losing sight of me. “Next week, at five, on the bench outside the dinner hall. Don’t forget it.” 

I couldn’t help it, but a light chuckle came out of my mouth. “I won’t!”

Yuqi’s figure disappeared around the corner as she waved her hand to me. My attention finally got back to the book in my hands, until out of the blue, I heard her voice again.

“Forgot to mention!” Yuqi gushed as her head stuck out of the bookshelf. “They say the library only lends you the books you really need. Okay, bye!” 

With that last statement, she banished for good. But if what she said was true, the book in my hands had a reason to be there, I just didn’t know why yet.

“There you are!” Yerim’s cheerful voice broke through, I turned around to watch her hurry to my side as she approached from the hall. “Sorry I'm late, I got a little held up back there.”

“Don’t worry, I was looking for a light read and then stumbled into Yuqi.” I responded, with the book fidgeting around my hands.

“Oh yeah! I saw her when I came in. She’s great, isn’t she?”

“Yes, she’s… talkative but enjoyable.” 

Yerim giggled at my statement. “Yes, that was definitely Yuqi. What were you guys chatting about?”

“Nothing really that important.”

But it was. Maybe I had no leads on whoever asked me about love, on whoever made me come down. But now, I had someone willing to answer my questions, even if it was or wasn’t her. Yuqi maybe even already knew who I was. 

In a world where new questions load my mind every second, I don’t think it is that bad to have someone help me out. 

My room stayed dim, as I contemplated the stars slowly moving across the sky through the window beside my bed, my eyes just couldn’t seem to find rest tonight. My mind filled with so much more questions to answer. But there was one specifically that had pestered my thoughts all day. I was done waiting for the answer and I had to talk to the person that could help me with that.

I raised myself from the bed, put my shoes on and threw my topcoat on my back. Carefully moving so to avoid waking up my snoozing roommate. Crossing the room, I turned the knob slowly and swung the door open. A slight creak escaping from it made my head snap to where my roommate was, her silhouette covered by her bedsheets, illuminated by the moonlight leaking through the window. But she didn’t seem to hear a thing, I stepped out of the room and quietly closed the door behind me.

Warily walking through the hallway, with my hand on the rail to guide my way to the stairs, I contemplated the empty and silent lounge downstairs, only lit up by the moonlight that managed to pass through the skylight. Delicately, I placed my foot over every step, to avoid making any kind of noise that could wake someone up.

Now I stood up in front of 4 doors. I knew one of them was the restroom, so it left it out. Following my best instincts, and heading to the door on my right, I contemplated knocking on it, but if I had picked the wrong door I would have just woken up the wrong people. So my hand headed directly into the knob and turned it meticulously. As I pushed the door gradually, my head peeked to see if I had chosen the correct room.

And there she was. 

I scurried by the side of her bed and hesitantly breathed until I finally gathered the courage to ask. I crouched until my fingers were softly lingering on the edge of her bed, and then I whispered.

“Ryujin-ah…” 

Ryujin jumped awake, startled. Her puffy face searched for the source of noise until her still sleepy eyes landed on my figure.

“Eden… What’s going on?” She muttered.

“Are croissants really that good?” The whisper came more like a plea from my mouth.

“Huh?” Ryujin scrunched her face at the question.

I shook my head trying to rephrase myself better. “I need to get a croissant, Where can I get one?”

“Uh…” I could see in her eyes that her mind was connecting each dot slowly. “Probably in the kitchen.”

“Excellent, thanks!” I raised myself up, satisfied with the answer. Turning around, I started moving towards my next objective. When suddenly, the urgent whisper of Ryujin filled the room.

“Eden, where are you going?” Her figure was visible against the moonlight. She was sitting on the edge of her bed, still rubbing her eyes.

“To the kitchen.” Confused as if my point had not come across clearly I repeated. “To the kitchen to get a croissant.”

“Right now?” 

“... Yes”

The moaning silhouette of the other sleeping girl in the room emerged from her bed sheets. 

“What is happening?” The girl’s raspy tone surrounded the room as she stretched her back.

“Oh, Hi Heejin!” I cheered.

“EDEN!” She let out a panicked gasp, followed by her frantically shuffling the sheets to cover herself. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, Ryujin said she would go to war for a croissant, and all day a question had lingered in my head and it wasn’t letting me rest so…”

“So we are going right now to get one.” Ryujin shushed me as she placed her hand on my shoulder. She had her topcoat and shoes already on.

“We?” I pondered.

“Right now?” Heejin continued.

“I would be a fool if I missed her reaction to her first croissant, wouldn’t I?” Ryujin proudly added.

“You guys are going to get in trouble.” Heejin articulated.

“But we are not doing anything bad.” I assured her. 

“Besides, what’s the most they are going to do to us? Give us a strike?” Ryujin scoffed. “It’s been a while since I had fun around here, Let’s go Eden.”

As silence filled the room with a taken aback Heejin, Ryujin patted my shoulder as she turned around towards the door, with me pacing closely behind. 

“Wait…” Heejin broke out as she stood up from her bed. “I’m going.”

“You are?” Ryujin marveled.

“Free pastries sound good enough. Don’t make me question myself.” Heejin quickly reached for us as she stumbled with her half put on shoes and coat on one shoulder. 

“I always knew you were a bit of a dare-devil.” Ryujin howled at the other girl.

“Shut up.” A slight smirk appeared on Heejin’s face as she punched Ryujin’s arm. 

Ryujin turned the door knob and peeked outside. She slowly opened the door and shuffled into the lounge, turning around, making a sign for us to follow. 

After carefully closing the door behind us, Heejin and I sneaked up to her swiftly.

Ryujin glanced outside through the curtains in the door. “Now we first have to make sure the coast is clear…”

“Where do you think you are going?...” A fourth voice disclosed. Ryujin, Heejin and I felt our soul leave our body as our eyes tried looking for the owner. Steps could be heard closing in on us as a silhouette emerged from the shadows. “...without me?”

Sana’s bright orange hair appeared in front of us as her face, being lit up by the bit of moonlight coming from the window, carried her usual playful smirk.

“How did… how…” Ryujin tried forming words but failed.

“I saw Eden going down the stairs and into your room.” Sana answered the incomplete question, totally unfazed by our nervous gaze. “I wanted to say Hi, but she seemed too into her mission for me to stop her.”

“Have you been awake all this time Unnie?” Ryujin now added, concerned.

“Yeah...” Sana returned the feeling. “But at least now I don’t have to do it alone!”

The three girls, as if choreographed turned their heads to me, as if they expected me to give them the next cue. “Oh yeah right. This whole thing was my idea.”

“Then where are we going?” Sana smiled eagerly at me.

“We are going to the kitchen. To taste a croissant.” I repeated for a third time in the night.

“Wait, you haven’t had one yet?” The orange haired girl’s eyebrows rose in surprise. 

“I had the same reaction!” Ryujin mumbled.

Heejin stared at me, but when I turned around to face her, she urgently swung her head to Sana. I noticed a slight tint of pink adorning her cheeks. “I just came here for the free food.”

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” Sana swiftly took off for the dorm’s main door. Taking us three by surprise, we quickly followed her pace.

Carefully opening it, Sana peeked her head out and scanned the area. Turning around to make sure we were following, she grabbed my hand and pulled me to the corridor outside. 

Dead silent, lit up only by the dim flame of the lanterns above us and the little moonlight coming from the courtyard. The good news, We were the dorm closest to the kitchen, with only a few steps to our right away we were already at its doors.

Ryujin warily opened one of them as Sana dragged me inside, followed by Ryujin, when without notice, Heejin halted her steps and sprinted past the door.

“Heejin!” Ryujin warned in a whisper. But she did not turn around. “Crap, she’s heading to the courtyard.”

“Should we go follow her?” I suggested.

“It’s better we stay here…” Sana tightened her grip on my hand, making my head rotate to face her. She mirrored my movements, making our eyes meet. She then glanced at our hands together, and hastily took them apart.

“I know I called her a dare-devil, but that was sarcasm!” Ryujin recalled as she continuously peeked outside to catch a glimpse of Heejin.

“Oh well, I guess she’ll be back soon.” Sana shrugged off, as she turned to me. “So where do we start?”

“Well, I think we first need to find a croissant.” I muttered.

“You mean you don’t know how to make one!?” Ryujin yelped.

“You said I could get one here, not _make one_!” I barked back.

“That’s why I got this!” Heejin materialized through the door, raising a book in her hand. “Hyunjin gets this book just to look at different pictures of bread when she’s bored. I knew it had some recipes in it and I didn’t want this whole trip to be in vain.”

“Heejin you are a genius!” Ryujin jumped to grab the book from the shortest hand. “I knew you had a soft spot for Eden’s puppy eyes.”

“Wha- No I don’t.” Heejin sheepishly lowered her glance to the floor, as the pink tint came back to her cheeks.

“There’s no time to waste ladies, c’mon!” Sana approached Ryujin as she searched for the croissant recipe in the book.

Ryujin quickly found the page, and with four pairs of hands ready to go to work, we dispersed throughout the kitchen to get the stuff we needed. 

In an academy meant to house around fifty or forty people, it was bound to have every ingredient we needed in stock. Flour, sugar, salt, butter, water and yeast were placed at the counter while a very occupied Ryujin fumbled with all the utensils the recipe called for.

With every step finished, a new flour stain made an appearance in our clothes and faces. Maybe even some of the stains were not accidental at all, but a product of Sana recklessly putting her hand in the flour and placing it all over my face, I grabbed a handful but completely missed Sana, hitting Heejin instead. In the chase, Ryujin got involved eventually. The flour war went on enough that the dough had rested its time. 

Once ready, they all granted me the honor of putting them inside the oven, which in itself was totally an adventure to turn on. We sat around it to watch them bake, with Heejin resting her back against my shoulder, as Ryujin rested against a kitchen counter. Sana went fully laying in the ground, her head resting on my thigh, facing the oven. Wide smiles were painted in all of our faces as we proudly watched the final step of our hard work. 

“We should probably clean this whole thing up. I wouldn’t want to get caught because of flour stains on…” Ryujin's eyes went up as she chuckled. “How did flour get to the ceiling?”

“Yeah, we should probably clean that up.” Heejin echoed as she got on her feet. 

I was just about to follow, when a little sigh escaped Sana’s mouth, changing my attention to her. She was very much sound asleep in my thigh. I turned to the other girls for help as they offered me a comforting smile.

“It’s okay, we’ll take care of it.” Ryujin whispered as Heejin nodded in accordance. “Sana Unnie had no sleep all night, we can let her rest a little.”

And with that, they went towards the cleaning supplies as my attention returned to the pastries in front of me. They inflated and colored themselves a light golden color as their confronting smells started filling the air around us, making my mouth salivate like it never did before. 

And before we knew it, the clock on the wall marked that the 15 minutes of baking had passed. Ryujin opened the oven with a safety glove, taking out the tray. Now another wait time came, we had to let some time pass for them to cool, or else our tongues would hurt, and I remember the feeling from the time Yerim told me to wait on my soup at dinner and I didn't. Not something I was eager to feel again.

We didn’t have to wait for long this time, as the temperature overall was a little bit chilly. When Heejin and Ryujin, who had just finished cleaning around, came close to inspect them and smiled at each other, I knew it was time.

My hand gently removed a strand of hair on Sana’s face, and placed it in her shoulder, as I slowly lowered my head to hers. “Hey,” I cheerfully whispered in her ear. “They are ready.”

A slight moan escaped Sana’s lips as she turned around, stretching herself. Abruptly, she straightened her back, making sniffing sounds. 

“It smells amazing!” She turned to face me, as she excitedly cupped my face in her hands, taking me by surprise. “I can’t believe we actually made them!”

I stood up and extended my hand to help Sana do the same. We approached the table in which the pastries rested. We all grabbed one with a napkin, feeling their warmth through it. 

“So, Eden…” Ryujin smirked as she stared directly at my soul. “Would you do the honors?”

I breathed deeply as I brought the pastry to my mouth. My teeth sank in the incredibly soft cloud of bready goodness, while my tongue enjoyed the vaguely sweet new taste it discovered. I felt a smile drawing in my face from ear to ear, as heat rose to my cheeks and my eyes widened up. 

“Wow…” It was the only thing that managed to escape from my mouth. The other girls chuckled as they stared at me with the same huge smile plastered on their face.

“So, what do you think?” Ryujin playfully asked.

“I would definitely punch someone for one of these.” I nodded as I took another bite of the delicacy in front of me. The three girls giggled as they looked at each other.

“For Eden!” Sana chanted as she rose her arm into the sky. “And for not having burnt the kitchen in the attempt!”

“For Eden!” Chorused Heejin and Ryujin as they mirrored Sana. They all took a bite out of their pastry, earning smiles and congratulatory nods between them.

We mostly stood up in silence enjoying our work. But when the clock marked 2 am, we knew we had to head back to the dorm.

“There’s one left…” I pointed to the remaining croissant on the table as the girls were putting her coats back again. 

“That’s yours.” Heejin responded as she grabbed a napkin and tightly wrapped the pastry inside it, handling the cute bundle to me. “Really, it was your idea. You can get the extra one.” 

“Thanks…”

“C’mon, we gotta go sleep at least a bit.” Ryujin remarked, opening the door and peeking outside to make sure it was clear.

When she signaled us, we all made a straight, swift, stealthy line to the dorm's door. As Sana carefully opened it, letting all of us in. Slowly closing it, making sure it didn’t sound as heavy as it usually did. 

There, we all respectively wished each other a good night, Ryujin and Heejin disappearing into their room. Leaving Sana and us alone in the main lounge

She turned around to face me, I could make up her smile and glowing eyes with the little light coming from the moon above us.

“I hope you have sweet dreams tonight. I know I will.” Sana whispered, reaching up, gently placing her lips against my cheek. She started walking away to her dorm, which was also on the lower floor of the dorm. “Good Night Eden.”

“G- Good Night Sana.” I felt heat rising in all my face, staring as her shadow got away, my palm gradually made its way up to my cheek. 

The sound of her door clicking shut broke my trance and shaking my head, I started making my way upstairs to my room. Gently opening the door enough for me to get through it, I stepped in and took my shoes off. I tossed my overcoat at my chair. 

Staring at the bundle in my hands, I swiftly scurried to the side of my roommate’s night stand. I could keep it for myself, they tasted incredible, but what really made this night stand out was sharing it with… my friends. _So that is what friendship feels like… Huh._

I placed the bundle gently on top of her nightstand. _I hope we get to be friends too Hyejoo._

Those late night excursions to the kitchen became the norm for the four of us. We tried everything in that book that didn’t feel dangerous enough to our amateur cooking skills.

Yes, some smoke and banging pots happened once in a while, but somehow we were never caught. Once, we over estimated quantities and _somehow_ a mysterious huge plate of chocolate chip cookies appeared in the main lounge of dorm 3. It became our little secret. 

Hyejoo kept waking up to new pastries in her nightstand every morning, and at first, it greatly confused her. I decided not to tell her a thing since I found it slightly entertaining how she scanned around for an answer. She then untied the bundle, and a smile drew across her face as she enjoyed the fresh pastry. With the days passing, Hyejoo decreased her wariness and replaced it with excitement instead.

I sat against the headboard of my bed, hiding my face behind my book as I watched Hyejoo stretch up and eagerly reached for today’s bundle on her night stand. 

The smell of a freshly baked cinnamon roll filled the room as she took the first bite. 

I felt a smirk appearing on me, as I drew the book closer to my face to hide the obvious staring. 

“You want a bite?” Hyejoo’s timid adenoidal voice made me gradually lower the book from my face, only to find her sitting in at the foot of my bed. She split the pastry in half, and without looking, extended one to me. “Don’t pretend you weren’t looking, nobody reads a book like that.”

“I-” I stuttered. Hyejoo wasn’t the kind of person to talk first, neither the most popular girl around. On my first day here, in comparison to Yerim or Sana, Hyejoo timidly just introduced herself and got straight to her side of the room. 

With my lack of vocabulary skills, and Hyejoo’s sheepish personality that could sometimes be wrongly mistaken as an intimidating aura, I could place my bet that our room was the quietest in the academy. 

“It’s okay, take it.” She insisted on not making eye contact with me while her hand still extended the pastry to me. In my eyes, the whole ordeal seemed sweet, my mouth producing a tender smile, from ear to ear.

“Don’t worry, I had some last night.” I exclaimed, deciding to end the secrecy around the whole event. “That one’s yours.”

“Wait…” Hyejoo lowered her arm, spinning her head to face me. Her distinctive triangle mouth slightly open in surprise confessed to me that she had already united the dots. “You have been leaving this… for me?”

“I have. But it can be our little secret.” 

Hyejoo nodded as a slight red hint colored her cheeks, with a little smirk adorning her face. “T- Thanks.” 

Without notice, Jihyo, the girl who was in charge of the dorm, knocked twice as a warning before opening the door and peeking inside.

“Good morning girls!” Jihyo's cheery voice broke through the silent atmosphere of the room, with her large eyes glancing kindly at us. “An emergency assembly has been called in the courtyard in ten minutes. Be punctual.”

“Yes Unnie.” We echoed as we stood.

Jihyo closed the door leaving us to fix ourselves. The moment before us banished as each one of us headed to our half of the room and got ready in a record amount of time. 

We headed down to the main lounge, where more of the girls from the dorm waited. The room radiated confusion, distrust and unease. Hyejoo traveled to the other side of the room, to where Yves, another girl of the dorm, rested on the couch. I reached for Ryujin who was chatting at the bottom of the stairs with Heejin.

“What do you think this is about?” I chimed in, whispering.

“I have no idea. I have never been in an emergency assembly. I didn’t even know we did those.” Ryujin responded, with a hint of unease on her voice.

“I just hope it’s not because of... “ Heejin halted her words as her eyes traveled to both our faces and then scanned the rest of the room. “You know…”

Heejin’s words made Ryujin and I a bit more nervous. Although we never did something malicious, we were aware that going into the kitchen at midnight was not something really advised in the rules. _But they wouldn’t make such a big deal out of it. Right?_

We all orderly exited the dorm and headed to the courtyard, meeting with girls from the other dorms in the corridors. The teachers, already standing straight in the balcony on top of the library, scanned the courtyard in waiting for us to fill it. 

We stood in lines, facing them, Ryujin and Heejin on both of my sides, with our breathing shaking at the mere ideas of being caught. 

The clock on the tower above the Teachers marked 8’O Clock, when the middle figure, Mx. Michael, raised their arms and recited to us. 

“I hope you had a good night of rest, and I wish a good morning to all.” Their speech resonated around the courtyard. “As you well may know by now, we have been unable to reconnect with _The Master_. And with a week into this incident, I have heard reports that discipline has decreased overall.”

I noticed Sana, a few rows in front of us, tensing her shoulders. She probably felt exactly the same way we did. Heejin’s hand reached for mine and Ryujin let out a breath she had been holding. The four of us feared the most out of the Principal’s mouth. I felt Hyejoo’s stare from away. As I turned my head to face her, I could only do, but offer her a reassuring smile.

“We as your mentors, have let down our guards and trusted your self-reflection, perhaps more than we should. I may have to remind you that even without _The Master’s_ omniscient eye, you must not falter in obedience. Having said that, the attempts of making a reconnection will continue, but the disciplinary measures will increase.”

I raised my eyes up to the teachers on the balcony. The figures, covered in the capes I saw them wear on my first day's initiation, all watched the crowd attentively. Except one. 

Mr. Azrael kept his gaze firm on me, his eyes glowing with a hidden secret. My forehead furrowed as I felt like I was scanned, judged and stripped open. Only when I dared making eye contact back to him, that his eyes guardedly turned to their front. Mx. Micheal took a deep breath, continuing their speech.

“You will learn to earn your freedoms appropriately. Or will be an example to others, through dire consequences”


	3. The Crown of Glory, Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tensions arise in the Promised Land, with the teachers breathing down the girl's neck, disciple getting tougher in every corner. With that, Eden's quest for answers gets riskier day by day, her identity compromised when an unexpected visit arrives in the gardens. The solutions have never been so close, but so far at the same time.

“Hold the lid while you are pouring.” Mx. Sariel’s voice burst through the eerie silence surrounding the etiquette seminar room.

The six girls around me were seated in posh seats surrounding a glass center table, everyone carrying a robust book on their head to maintain their posture. The soft clanking of ceramics and every drop of water falling from the pot were the only sounds adorning the room. 

I straightened my posture as the boiling hot pot shook in my hands, carefully tilting it to serve Hyejoo a cup of tea, in the proper way to do it. As I finished pouring, I carefully laid the pot back in its place, before rightfully sitting down. 

“Good job Miss. Eden, next time, be sure to control your hands a little more.” Mx. Sariel approached my chair as I nodded accordingly. Slowly, they placed a book back in my head, before heading to the seat on my right, taking Yeojin’s book off of her head. “Miss Yeojin, would you be so kind of serving Miss Ryujin a cup of tea?” 

“Yes Mx.” Yeojin gracefully stood up and headed to the pot. Barely being able to hold the handle in her little hand, she tried putting her other hand on the bottom of it. My body instinctively bolted towards her, but it was too late. 

Yeojin yelped and leaped in agony, the pot escaped her hands, crashing to the floor beside her. My book and some other girls’ hit the floor with a loud thump.

Thankfully, the tea did not spill on top of her, only splashing her a little, still causing her to bounce in pain.

“Miss Yeojin!” Mx. Sariel's stentorian voice resonated through the walls as they approached her at a fast pace.

“I am so sorry Mx. I promise I will clean immediately.” Yeojin’s voice trembled as she fearfully stepped back. “It was an accident, my apologies!”

I really didn’t think about my actions when I sprinted to step between Mx. Sariel and little intimidated Yeojin. Mx. Sariel halting their steps in the way, his face contorting at the rebellious action. 

“Miss Eden, please get out of the way.” Their voice was calm, yet menacing, exiting my ears as fast as it entered.

“It’s not her fault. My hand hurts too and I only grabbed it by the handle.” My mouth alone did the talking.

“You did good in today’s lesson Miss Eden.” Monotonously steady, they articulated. “Do not ruin this for yourself.”

“But she is right, Mx.” Ryujin stepped in by my side, followed by Hyejoo, who did not say a thing, but used her firm glance to our advantage.

“You ladies know tea must not be served cold!” Mx. Sariel’s seemingly unbreakable stance started showing cracks on its surface, as their voice trembled at the sight of three girls standing against them. 

“Boiling hot is as undrinkable too!” I protested. And with the look on Mx. Sariel’s face, I knew I had crossed a line.

“Miss Eden, do not go around believing that because of the conditions of your arrival, you are exempt from following the rules. You do not get to talk back to me like that, young lady.” Their voice, now again stentorian followed. “I tried to believe Mx. Raphael and Mx. Uriel, but you have not demonstrated the discipline I would like to see from you in my class. Take this as your second strike Miss. Take into account that if you get one of this every class of mine, your time in the Promised Land will be cut very short. Do you understand that?”

“Y- Yes. Mx. Sariel.” My voice resented. 

“And this goes to all of you ladies.” They turned to face everyone witnessing the scene. “Being the youngest class does not exempt you from consequences. Understood?”

“Yes Mx. Sariel.” We chorused back.

“Very well, you are dismissed.” They turned their back on us, and with a breeze of their cloak, the broken pot and the spilled tea were no more.

We rapidly took our things and exited the room. I could feel the atmosphere around crushing my shoulders as the only thing my ears could pick up were the unsteady breaths of the girls surrounding me.

A pair of arms surrounded my chest below my arms. I looked down to find Yeojin firmly pressing herself against me.

“I’m sorry Eden.” Yeojin’s voice cracked. “I’m sorry I got you into trouble.”

“No, Yeojin…” My arms surrounded the girl in comfort. “They were not being righteous. I would take that hit again if anyone needed to.”

“Thank you so much…” I could feel some of her tears damping my blouse. “I didn’t know what to do…”

“It’s okay Yeojin. Really.” I raised their chin softly. Her crystal sad eyes met mine, as a tear dropped on her cheek. “But, are you okay?”

“I think so.” Yeojin separated herself from me slowly, checking her feet. “It only splashed me a little.”

“I’ll take her to the infirmary.” Ryujin stepped in as she scanned Yeojin from top to bottom, clearly noticing she was not stepping correctly on one foot. “I’ll see you later at the dorm?”

“Sure, thanks Ryu.” I adjusted my pouch in my arm as some other girls headed their ways. “Let me know if you need something girls.” 

And with that, Ryujin took Yeojin’s arm around her neck and headed to the infirmary, Choerry following behind closely. 

My head bolted to the clock in the courtyard and it marked 5:15 with its hands. Letting a short gasp escape my lips, I turned around in the other direction, heading to the stairs, when I felt someone walking by my side. Turning to the sound, my head found a quiet but comfortable Hyejoo accompanying me. My guess is she felt the stare, as she spinned to offer me a gentle smile.

Neither of us said a word on our way up the stairs and through the corridors. Just enjoying each other’s company was enough. 

Opening the door to the balcony, my eyes cough a glimpse of Yuqi sitting in one of the tables in the far corner, facing the forest surrounding the complex. As the door closed loudly, Yuqi’s head rotated towards us, waving enthusiastically as I returned the gesture. Hyejoo on my side, sheepishly raised her hand before slumping her shoulders and lowering her head.

“I… I better be going back to the dorm.” She whispered as she spun towards the door.

“Are you sure you don’t want to stay?” I gently tapped her shoulder. “We just normally drink some tea, laugh, talk.”

“Talking…” Hyejoo sneered. “We both know that’s not really my thing.”

“Fine, I lied. Yuqi does most of the talking.” I laughed. “But she’s nice to be with.”

“I got some things to do, maybe some other day.” 

“It’s okay Hye, I’ll see you at the dorm later.” I offered her a smile as she reciprocated shyly. 

“Are you gonna bake something tonight?” Hyejoo enthusiasm suddenly broke through her cold facade.

“I- I don’t know.” I shrugged. “With how intense things have been lately, it’s been getting riskier.”

“I know. I just don’t want you getting into even more trouble.” She jokingly punched my arm. “But in case you stupidly decide to put yourself in danger tonight too, I heard fruit tarts are actually pretty good.”

Her comment got a chuckle out of me. This time, me jokingly punching her back in her arm. 

“I’ll think about it, Hye.” I felt a smile coming through as I glanced at her rarely shown triangle smile too. “I’ll see you later then.” 

She nodded as she opened the door back inside. I headed the other way in Yuqi’s direction. She was already waiting for me with a huge smile, unable to sit still.

“Hey, sorry I’m late, it’s just that-”

“How did you do that?” Yuqi’s amused voice cut through my words as I, then cautiously grabbed a seat in the chair in front of her.

“Did- Did what?” I trembled.

“How did you become friends with Hyejoo?”

My mind blanked at the question as my mouth let out unintelligible mumbles. “I- I don’t really think we can be called friends as such.”

“Are you kidding me?” Yuqi blasted as she closed the book in her hands. “I know every girl in this place and the closest I have ever gotten of even interacting with her was… I think right now. I was gonna count the time I accidentally bumped into her in a hallway, but this was way friendlier.” 

“I guess Hyejoo is just really shy, that’s all.”

“You were too, and look at us now!” Her hand reached across the table to mine. The gesture made heat rise to my cheeks.

“It’s not like you gave me much of an option Yuqi!” I joked. 

Yuqi took her hand back and crossed her arms, her eyebrows furrowed with mouth wide open and her chin shooting up.

“I- You are not totally wrong” She howled. “That’s fine, I enjoy your company too, I guess.”

“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t like you.” I said, reaching for the book on the table, the title on the cover reading _Carol._ “What’s this one about?”

“It’s a love story. One of the few romance novels left.” Yuqi sighed as her eyes leaned to the floor. “They have been taking books out of the library this past week, including romance novels. The only reason I have one it’s because I had it with myself before they started.”

“But you told me the teachers couldn’t enter the library-”

“I know…” Yuqi placed her hand on top of the book, as if trying to protect it. “But I guess with _The Master_ gone there is nothing stopping them. They also banished almost all books from the _Controversial for Humans_ aisle.” 

“What is left?” I questioned. 

“Books about building furniture in Swedish, autobiographies of people who haven’t even reached their thirties, and a whole bunch of cooking and baking books.”

“Oh thank god.” I gasped at the last category. Yuqi broke her trance, looking at me perplexed. “I mean, that’s horrible, why are they doing this?”

“Do you want the reason they want us to believe,” She scanned the area around us before leaning close to me, whispering. “Or in usual Yuqi style, do you want the theory of the real reason this is happening?”

“Eh-”

A sudden ruffle in the bushes far from us made us snap our heads to the forest surrounding us, trying to pinpoint the source of the sound. As the ruffle sounded closer, Yuqi took hold of my arm, shielding herself from the unknown. The bushes right in front of us started moving, and Yuqi’s grab on my arm tensed up. 

An orange ball of fluff with a large tail, trotted into the plain, curious. Exploring on it’s four paws around, sniffing around the trees and bushes.

“W-What is that?” Yuqi trembled as she pointed to the creature far from the balcony.

“It’s a fox.” I answered with a new-found confidence. I shook her arm slightly as my body dragged me towards the stairs stealthily. Every step I took as light as a feather as to not scare the fluff ball away.

“Eden! What are you doing?” Yuqi whispered, paralyzed in her place. “You know it is strictly forbidden to step into the outside gardens.”

But it all entered through one ear immediately to exit the other. I carefully descended the stairs and moved across the plain to approach the fox. Yuqi watched in awe, nervous, as her hands wrapped at the railing surrounding the balcony. 

“At least be careful…” I heard her cry. 

I extended my arm, putting my open palm towards the creature. The fox calmly turned its head to me, sniffling curious.

“Hey,” I whispered to it, offering a warm smile as I slowly kept approaching. “It’s me! Do you know who I am?”

The creature took a step towards me, making Yuqi gasp from afar. I took a knee, waiting for the fox to make the next approaches. Extending its snout and smelling the palm of my hand, it carefully analyzed everything of me, as I braced for whatever occurred.

“ _It is hard to recognize you with that disguise._ ” A disembodied deep voice resonated in my head. The fox in front of me scrubbed its head against my palm peacefully. _“But I am glad I found you.”_

My body fell down in surprise. The fox tilted its head as it came even closer. 

“You- You can talk?” I stuttered.

“ _I heard the word you had become one of them._ ” The fox quietly took a seat. _“But I never imagined you had lost so much of your power.”_

“P-Power?”

“Eden!” I heard Yuqi’s steps closing in. The fox glared over my shoulder, standing up swiftly, taking a defensive stance. Her hands reached for my arms, helping me up. “Are you okay?”

_“They even gave you one of their names”_

“I’m okay…” I stuttered, but my fluffy companion kept backing off. “It’s fine, she won’t harm you.”

 _“Oh, how much have you forgotten.”_ The voice in my head sounded downhearted. 

“Trust me.” My hand reached for Yuqi’s as I guided her on her knees. Bringing my other hand to the extended palm position. “Please, the two of you, trust me.”

The fox relaxed its stance, as Yuqi searched for my eyes, alarmed. Only after I offered her a smile that she sighed and copied my position. 

After rubbing against my palm, the creature warily approached Yuqi’s hand. She closed her eyes as I felt her hand trembling in mine. I held her steadily, the fox turned at me alert and I offered it a reassuring smile. 

The fluff ball scrubbed against Yuqi’s palm. After a while they both relaxed, Yuqi cautiously opening her eyes, and the fox sitting down in between us two.

“Wow…” Yuqi gasped. “You are soft”

“ _And you are not like the others”_ I heard the fox answer. But by Yuqi’s inexistent reaction, I assumed she could not hear it.

“You know, for so much time they have talked to us about feral beasts living far beyond the light tree circle.” A light smile appeared in Yuqi’s face as she gracefully stroked the fox’s head. “This is definitely not what I had in mind.”

“Feral beasts?” I questioned.

“How did you know?” Yuqi’s eyes glowed as she cheerily addressed me. “How did you know it was all wrong?”

“ _They don’t know who you are…”_ The fox tilted its head towards me, surprised.

“I- I don’t know.” I answered to Yuqi, shyly lowering my head.

“Eden…” She turned around, ecstatically shaking my hand “Do you realize what this means?”

“I wish I did.” I answered.

“They are really hiding things from us!” Yuqi raised her hands to the sky. “This means maybe some of my theories are right! And that I found the perfect partner to debunk all!”

“ _Is- Is she always this frantic?”_

I nodded my head at the question. We both watched the dark haired girl mumble and laugh to herself with a huge smile, which I’m not gonna lie drew one on my face too.

Once she regained more composure, she went back to sitting by our side, surrounding my shoulders with her arms and platting a kiss on my cheek. I felt heat rising to my cheeks with the action.

“We got so much work ahead of us.” She stood up, extending her hand to me. “Let’s go back before they see us. We have run with so much luck right now.” 

“I’ll catch up,” I responded.

Yuqi took off to the top of the balcony as I then turned to talk to my new friend again.

 _“Things have changed around so much.”_ The fox started. “ _I am glad you came down to help them. They need you.”_

“What do you mean they need me?” I questioned, confused.

“ _Look at them…”_ It signaled behind me to the building. “ _I must be going back, as I too will get into trouble if they see me here.”_

“No, wait! I still have-”

But my friend had already stood up, facing the forest.

 _“We will see each other again.”_ It nodded towards me.

“Eden!” Yuqi, already at the door carrying our stuff, signaled me to rush.

_“Good luck, Master.”_

And with that, through the green busy line of trees ahead of me, the orange ball of fluff disappeared.

* * *

An afternoon of dinner, and extra library time filled with books about animals and Yuqi’s ramblings later, the sun had already set in the horizon, and the light available was coming from the few lamps that had been turned on. 

Exiting the library, an imposing Mr. Azrael was wandering the corridors. We politely vowed as we made eye contact, rushing our steps. I walked aside Yuqi to her dorm’s entrance and then headed straight for mine. 

I pushed the door to enter the lounge, when I spotted the pink locks of hair of our head attendant of the dorm, Jihyo, talking with two other girls, Yves and Jeongyeon. The instant the door closed, the three of them bolted their heads towards me, Jihyo darting towards me.

“It’s not that late Un-”

“What were you thinking!?” Jihyo grunted.

“I- I honestly think about a lot of stuff” I stuttered, confused. “But if you ask me about right now, I was thinking about the stew from din-”

“No!” Jihyo put her hands on my shoulders, shaking me lightly. “We saw you out!”

“OHHHHH!” A switch turned on in my brain, remembering every rule I had broken in the day. I probably had this scolding coming up, well-deserved.

“And Hyejoo told me about the incident from Etiquette class.” Yves added wood to the fire, her arms crossed pacing closer to us.

“But that one was unfair.” I defended myself.

“Yes, it was. Mx. Sariel always is.” Jihyo continued scolding. “But you don’t get unlimited chances to try justice in here.”

“But-” 

“Don’t push it Eden.” The pink haired girl sighed, now facing the floor. “We have seen what happens when you get on their wrong side.”

The look in their eyes pleaded me to side with them, desperate, sad, nostalgic. But their request meant I had to abandon all hope of finding out my reason to be here, the research with Yuqi, the fox’s urge. It demanded me to play a game I didn’t want to play.

Before I had to answer, A door behind them boomed open, revealing a puzzled Ryujin behind it.

“What is going on?” Ryujin scanned the scene in the lounge. Gasping when she locked her eyes on me, she swiftly approached. “I need to talk to you, young lady!”

“Ryujin this isn’t-” Jihyo tried gaining control of the situation.

“I know! She needs some self-reflecting time” If I could tell better, Ryujin’s voice had a reprimanding tone in it. “Unbelievable what you have done. Come with me.”

She clutched my wrist as she dragged me across the lounge, the three older girls furrowing her brows at the scene. Pulling me into her room, she closed her door behind us, trapping me with her. Heejin, who was quietly reading in her bed, slammed her book and neared us.

“Okay, I think we are safe here.” Ryujin let go of my arm. Her melodramatic irritated expression faded out as it was replaced with a smirk, shortly before erupting in laughter. “Eden, you are such a case!”

My still amateur skills at interpreting complex human emotion jammed at the girl in front of me. Congratulatory patting my shoulder, giggling when not even seconds before, her expression was the perfect indicative of the third scolding of my day.

“You- You are not mad at me?”

“Mad?” Ryujin’s laugh scoffed. “Girl, you seriously surprise me every day, in a good way!”

“We had never seen someone come so close to a creature before,” Heejin added. “You are amazing!”

“You saw that too?” I felt blood rushing to my cheeks, as I hid my face behind my hands.

“After Shuhua basically shouted that you were outside-” Heejin recounted, her hand signaling the windows on the other side of the room. “Dorm three has a front seat to the gardens of the balcony.

“Oh-”

“But look at you!” Ryujin jabbered. “You weren’t caught, and you gave us the best piece of entertainment since everyone is kinda bored without books.”

They decided to talk about it for hours on end. About the collective sighs and gasps at everything that went down earlier. They asked how it all felt, why was I not afraid. Ryujin and Heejin treated me more like a hero, against Jihyo and Yves. 

But why were there such different reactions to my actions? Why do some people celebrate me and others disapprove? 

Their laugh muffled up in the distance as I got lost in my thoughts again. Does it all have to do with what the fox told me?

The fox. I omitted that I could understand it. I omitted the little detail of the task that it forewarned me. I knew I needed to save them, but from what? What danger could be lurking around in a perfect cage? 

But looking around, looking at the smiles of two of my best friends, I knew I could do it. I knew I would save them from anything that they needed to be saved.

I ignore the exact moment it happened. I opened my eyes to discover I had fallen asleep at the feet of Heejin’s bed. Her arm wrapped around my chest as her head rested on my shoulder, I turned around to see Ryujin asleep too, totally crooked on top of her bed sheets. We must have been talking a long time, cuddling and laughing. 

I carefully removed Heejin’s arm from me, standing up, I tucked her and Ryujin into her beds. Both too sound asleep to even notice me moving them. 

The clock in the wall marked in its hands one hour post-midnight. _I guess there is no sneaking out tonight then._ I thought to myself. With Mr. Azrael eye on the corridors, it was way too dangerous to go out in itself.

Slowly opening the door back to the lounge, I spotted the road to my room upstairs. I started walking when a way too familiar sigh filled the stillness of the room. Her orange locks fell down her shoulders, her sitting silhouette brightened by the shine of the moon coming out of the skylight.

“Sana…” I whispered. The girl jumped in surprise, having been disconnected from her own world. “I don’t think we can go out tonight. Ryujin and Heejin are sound asleep, you should try to get some rest too.”

“I’m- I’m not sleepy.” She croaked. 

I came forward to her, signaling the empty slot to her side on the couch. 

“Would you mind some company?” I muttered. She shook her head, not taking her eyes from the floor, gently tapping the seat with her hand. 

I took the sign and placed myself by her side. She waited until I was comfortable enough to rest her head on my shoulder, wrapping her hands around my arm, sighing again. 

We stayed this way, just enjoying each other’s company for a while. I enjoyed it, though I found it strangely unusual from her.

“You know,” My whisper broke the silence. “I find your silence a little odd.”

She giggled at my statement. I turned to her and managed to catch sight of the light smirk in her face.

“I know it’s hard to believe but sometimes I just like listening.” She answered, turning her face inches from mine, our eyes meeting in the middle.

“What do you listen to in a silent room?” 

“The wind against the trees outside, your soothing breath, the echo of steps outside, your beating heart,” She listed as the smile on her face grew. “And my mind. But that’s the one that never shuts up.”

“Why would you want it to shut up?”

“Just, so I could sleep peacefully and stop questioning everything I do.” Her face abruptly dropped. A sudden green hue illuminated our faces, Sana shook herself and looked up, her finger pointing at the skylight. “They came!”

“Wha-”

Sana grabbed my chin with her hand and pushed it up. Green streaks of light adorned the dark blue canvas above us, dancing at incomprehensible rhythms all together. Purple and blue stains scattered across the base, all coexisting with a never ending assortment of white freckles adorning every corner.

My breath halted as I took the sight above me. It hit me quickly. Even though I had seen a piece of all this through my window, it was so different. _How blind I was before._ That’s where I used to roam, I was not meant to awe at the sight of it, but I just had never seen it before, not in this light. 

“Everynight I wish I could just go up in the ceiling and watch them closer, not only listening to the wind but actually filling it.” Sana sighed, her eyes turning back to me. “And I wouldn’t mind sharing the company too.”

“Maybe one night that Ryujin and Heejin are not snoring their lungs out, we could all go together.” I added, my eyes still glued to the skylight. 

“I- I wasn’t really talking about- Yes, going together would be nice.” She exhaled in defeat. “But you know, I don’t think a lot of them know about it. I would dare say maybe only us two know.”

“What if we go together? Right now?” I excitedly lowered my face to meet hers.

“W- What? Eden. No.” Sana sturdily grabbed my arm as her tone dropped into seriousness. “I can’t let you run out into more trouble.”

“But we are doing nothing wrong-” I shook her wrasp off of me.

“Look, babe. I know.” She put her hand on my shoulder, in an effort to explain. “But, the rules… And… I enjoy your company. A lot. I don’t know what I would do if something happened to you.”

“What is going to happen to me?” I felt my breath agitate as I slightly raised my tone. 

“Eden-” Sana urgently tried calming me down.

“Sana, I came here with so many questions and I haven’t been able to answer one.” I started venting at the girl in front of me. “Everyday I get new questions thrown at me, and I am just so lost-”

“Then it’s already two of us!” She fired back in the same tone. “If I had any clues for you I would tell you. I don’t. The answer to everything has always remained unchanged. As untruthful and artificial, every single time.”

“And what answer would that be?”

“ _The Master_ always mandated it that way.” Sana articulated.

My breath halted as my entire energy collapsed. My head spinning around as I took in the gravity from her words. But Sana didn't let her pose fall down. 

“ _The Master_ …” My lips repeated, hurt, confused. 

“I know you haven’t heard much about them since you got here. And I really think it’s better for you that way.” She continued.

“Why?...” 

“I believe they have never really cared about us.” Sana sighed, her face bolted to the horizon, with new determination filling her eyes. “And I don’t really give a damn about them either. Every time I try having this conversation everyone is like ‘ _Careful, they might hear you.’ O_ r _‘They will punish you for talking like that.’_ ”

I had never seen this side of her before, the always cheery and carefree Sana I had known all this time, dissipated like smoke. Her eyebrows lowered as her jaw and fists clenched.

“But I know they won't. I know they will not hear me.” She scoffed.

“How are you so sure about that?”

“Because I once asked…” Sana, lowered her shoulders and turned around abruptly, getting ready to stand. “Nevermind, let’s just go to sleep. I’m sorry I dragged you into this” 

“No, Sana…” My hand instinctively reached for her wrist as I pulled her closer to me, “I promise I will listen.”

Sana halted in her steps, her brown eyes staring right at mine’s. After staying some seconds of silence this way, she sheepishly lowered her face, as she let out a deep breath. 

“I stay awake every day, hoping to hear them. Hoping that they tell me everything’s gonna me alright. Hoping they tell me that they do care. The teachers have always told us that everything _The Master_ does, they do it out of love, but, every time I read something about love, _it’s just so different._ I don’t believe love it’s about controlling others through fear, with punishing those who don’t follow your rules. It makes me think, maybe a little too much. Do they really love _us_ , or do they want us to change to be worthy of their love? Cause if this what they call love, I don’t want any part of it.”

“W- What do you think love is?” I whispered.

“I had imagined it a least more… _free._ ” She raised her chin. Her eyes met mine once again as she released a shaky breath. “The reason I question all of this, why I know they are not listening to me, Eden… It’s because I already asked them if they knew what love felt like. That’s the only thing I really wanted to know. But they never answered back.”


	4. The Crown of Glory, Part 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Confessions have been made that can change the course of Eden's stay for better or for worse, and as eerie skies surround the Promised Land, winds of change can be felt among everyone.

“Eden!” Yerim waved her hand in front of my face, bringing me back from my trance. The table, consisting of Heejin, Ryujin and Yerim, stared at me while I rearranged my thoughts. “You zoned out again, are you sure you are okay?”

“I am” I assume my body just had given up on convincing them I was, and just wanted them to stop asking. My flat tone resonated like an echo in between us. They quietly went back to their food, as my mind dwelt on how much  _ not okay  _ I was.

To sum everything up, Sana was the reason I was here. I came here to discover the answer to her question. Something I still didn’t have and still had no way of knowing. So I failed at that.

Then we had Yuqi and her never ending search for something I wasn’t even sure of what it was, always a death end, or a never-ending tunnel. Not something I would qualify as a success either. 

And the last, countless, restless nights of me staring into the window, hoping to see my friend the fox, or anyone really, to help me clear my mind of everything that was going on. The dark circles under my eyes were the perfect indicative of a defeat in that one too.

For once, I had no plan of attack. No leads or a single clue. 

I lost my eyes in the distance, unfocused on Sana, who was sitting at a table across the dinner hall with other girls, laughing, unaware of the whirlwind of emotions inside me. 

The truth is, on the outside, barely anything changed between us. But inside, I knew she hated me. She liked Eden, but night after night she reminded me of how much she despised  _ The Master _ . If I dared tell her the truth, my truth, I’d lose her.

A hand brushing mine lightly broke me from another trance. I snapped towards the hand’s owner, to find Heejin offering me a comforting smile.

“You should try eating something,” Heejin appealed, scanning my body for a response before continuing. “It’s gonna get cold”

Working on auto-pilot, my hand grabbed the fork on my right, nibbling at the carrot salad. A relieving sigh escaped Heejin and Yerim’s lips as they watched me take a bigger bite of the now cold steak. The three of them went silently back to their meals, not taking their eyes away from me. 

In a way, I was extremely grateful I had them with me. A week had passed, and if they weren’t kicking my bum out of bed, dragging me into classes and reminding me to eat, I would now be a lifeless carcass of bamboozlement. 

“I think we should get back to the dorms , it’s already getting dark.” Ryujin broke her silence, as she quickly gathered her utensils on her tray. “Way darker than usual.”

“Shouldn’t we wait for Ed-”

“Don’t worry, I’m not that hungry.” I laid the fork in defeat against the table, as my throat hardly swallowed the last bite. “Let’s go.”

Yerim and Heejin snapped her heads towards Ryujin, startling her as she shrugged in response.

As heavy as my entire body felt, I got into my feet, carrying the food tray with my hands. Making a straight line to hand my tray back, and into the door out of the dining room, I had ignored the rushed steps of my friends behind me. I waited for them to compose themselves between whimpers, asking them to lead the way to the dorms. 

Crossing the door to the courtyard, we found the perplexing image of other girls looking up to the sky, pointing puzzled, some scared. 

The four of us rushed to the patio, tilting our heads up to see… Nothing. It was just a gray canvas invading the sky from side to side. 

Where there would usually be bold brushstrokes of purple, yellow and red; sometimes even pink and teal adorning twilight, there was a deep plain gray coated surface. 

“What is that?” Yerim mumbled. 

“I have no idea.” Ryujin responded, dumbfounded. “But it doesn’t look great.”

“Ladies!” Mr. Azrael announced from the balcony in front of their office, yanking our attention to them. “The phenomenon in the sky does not appear to be harmful, however, the rest of the tutors and I are making exhaustive research into fixing the problem. A mandatory curfew is now in place until this issue has been resolved. I kindly ask you to inform the rest of the girls, have a restful night.”

Mr. Azrael disappeared quickly into the office again, leaving all the girls in the courtyard taken aback.

“It’s like the third time in the month they say they are working on fixing something.” Heejin remarked. 

“Let’s just go back to the dorms guys.” I followed, turning around, not really interested in keeping track of yet another question thrown out at me. 

“Eden-” 

I don’t care. A new voice reached out for me but I didn’t even bother to stop and analyze whoever was there trying to stop me. My feet were not going to stop until I was far, far from the doubts and problems. 

Girls were pacing all around me, each rushing to reach a pointless destination. It didn’t matter how much they looked at the sky, how much they looked outside the window, they were not going to solve it. They were not going to solve anything until I was go- 

“EDEN!” 

A hand yanked my arm around, shaking me heavily. My eyes tried to focus, but only managed to get blinded by the white walls that indicated I had somehow already found myself in my dorm’s lounge.

The silhouette of black curls and a tender face started clearing up in front of me, her eyes frantically searching mine

“Eden, what is going on?” Yuqi yanked me back and forth, making my sick body dizzy up with every move.

“What-”

“This is not you! What is wrong?” My eyes started making the silhouettes of Ryujin, Heejin, and Yerim behind Yuqi, who, as usual, was not going to shut up until she had an answer.

“It’s not your dorm, you and Yerim shouldn’t be here. You could get in trouble.”

“As if you wouldn't do the same for us.” Yerim snapped back at me.

“We just want to help,” Yuqi added, taking a step closer to me. And as everything played painfully slow in my mind, I could only see the eyes of four girls staring back at me, waiting for me to do something. 

“Guys…” I managed to whisper, a cold shiver traveled my spine in the form of sweat, weird enough since I felt the room getting colder. “I… thank you. But I think I should be going to sleep.”

Ryujin, Yerim, Yuqi and Heejin all crossed looks with each other, but I couldn’t wait for them to decide on me, as I felt the pressing on my head, getting worse by the second. 

“I think it’s better to let her rest, maybe that’s just what she needs” Ryujin ordered the other girls. “Tomorrow’s a new day. Eden might feel better.”

“Before you go,” Heejin walked towards me, unwrapping a little bundle that she got out of a pocket in her dress. I raised my hand to support my head, that felt like it was seemingly about to fall off my shoulders. “I got this out of the kitchen for you, in case you get hungry later.”

I extended my free hand towards her, when my legs lost all feeling of support. My hearing got hazy, and my eyes foggy. I tried reaching for Heejin, but I couldn’t, she was getting farther, farther...

* * *

“It shouldn’t take long…” Heejin’s voice echoed in my mind, but I couldn’t find her. I only saw black. “I hope it doesn’t take long.”

“Calm down,” Now it was Hyejoo’s turn to resonate inside me, but my eyes resigned to work. “She will be fine”

“It says here that if it isn’t serious it shouldn’t last more than a few seconds.” Heejin responded, her voice getting more agitated with each word. “It’s been more than a few minutes, Hyejoo. I’m not calming down. Maybe we should tell the teachers...”

“No,” Ryujin’s presence was confirmed by her voice, farther than the two first girls. “You wouldn’t like to see how much stuff they put her through, just… ”.

The silence fell hard around me. Dreading to lose my only connection to my surroundings, the crushing silence was replaced with my own breath, raising and falling heavily. I felt my chest grab on to what little air it was grasping until my eyes suddenly were able to make up shadows around me. Three blurry smudges rushed to my side, and if I was not in the middle of an hallucination, I could only assume it was the girls I heard talking just now.

Abruptly, my body remembered how to properly breathe, and I felt a bolt of life run through my body. My eyes shot open and it took a second to validate my suspicions, as Heejin and Hyejoo, both sat at the foot of the bed I laid on, while Ryujin hung from the bed column behind them.

“What happ- Ugh!” I failed my attempt at sitting when my head stung. 

“Hey, hey, easy…” Ryujin whispered, while Heejin carefully helped me lay down again. “Do you know your name?”

“Wha-” My eyes narrowed in disbelief at her question. “I’m… Eden.”

“Okay! At least she knows!” Ryujin let out a sigh of relief. “What else should we ask her?”

“What are you talking about?” I anxiously tried to move again, only to discover my shirt was not buttoned up. “And why am I half undressed?!”

“First of all, because we should be asking easy stuff to ensure you didn’t suffer memory loss from a concussion and, for the second question, because we like how you look like that.” Ryujin sneered.

The other two girls snapped their heads to the short haired girl, who proudly bear a smirk across her face. But upon watching our three bewildered expressions, her grin faded, awkwardly lowering her shoulders.

“Loosening tight clothes might help with the air flow and the recovery.” Ryujin corrected herself, clearing her throat. “To sum everything up, we believe you fainted.”

“You… believe?”

“It’s the closest thing that could describe what happened to you in this.” Hyejoo raised the thick book for me to look at. “It’s about human medicine, but it’s like the best thing Yuqi and Yerim could get her hands on.”

“Try drinking this. It’s fruit juice. It should help you out.” Heejin pulled up a glass full of reddish, nice-smelling liquid to my mouth.

She made sure I drank enough and slowly, but every sip traveling down my body made my stomach cramp, maybe for the little sustenance my body had been managing to survive these last days.

“There, a little color came back to you cheeks.” The brunette smiled while scanning my face, letting a chuckle out when my eyes vengefully stared hard back at her. “Oh, don’t get mad at me for taking care of you.”

“Ugh, having a body is weird.” I complained. 

The three girls giggled, while it dawned on me what I just let out of my mouth. I felt relief inside me, knowing they didn’t take me seriously.

“And we will not leave you alone until we see you finish that glass of juice and half the donut Heejin brought you, so that...” Hyejoo added, opening the book and searching something on the page, “So that it  _ immediately corrects the sugar deficit and improves your recovery _ .” 

I slumped down in the bed in defeat, alternating bites of the pastry and sips of the juice the girl beside me was supplying me with. The truth is, I wasn’t really mad at them, not at all. If anything, my mind dwelled in resentment towards myself, they did not have to go through all this, but they are doing it for me.

I couldn’t be  _ The Master  _ and Eden at the same time. One of them had to go, and I already knew the presence of one and the absence of the other made their lives harder and it was drilled into my head every day.

The silence in the room allowed me to just exist for a moment, thinking of my next move.

“Wait...” I grunted, taking a sip of juice, while my eyes surveilled my surroundings, discovering that I actually found myself lying in Ryujin’s bed. “This is not my room.”

“There was no way we could take you upstairs, so we carried you here,” Ryujin recalled, revealing a light smile forming in her lips. “Of course, we did it before reading you should not move a person who just fainted…”

“But you are still alive, so I guess it wasn’t  _ that bad. _ ” Hyejoo joked back.

“How long was I gone?” I whimpered, turning to Heejin. 

“Around thirty minutes.” She smiled back, delicately moving a hair away from my face. “At least now…”

“EDEN!” Sana’s ringing voice rumbled across the room as her orange mane poked through the door. She sprinted towards me, with arms wide open. 

“San-? UFF” The girl slammed against me, taking all the air out of my lungs.

I spotted Yerim and Yuqi calmly approaching the bed, offering me pitiful smiles.

“I was so worried about you, I watched you go straight to the floor and-” Sana rambled, her voice breaking in the process. Her arms pulled me closer, allowing me to feel every beat of her heart against my chest. “Dammit Eden, please don’t scare me like that.”

“Sana… ” I struggled to articulate every word right now, but she managed to listen to my whisper enough, making some distance in between us. “I’m okay.”

“No, you are not.” Like a chorus, Heejin, Ryujin and Hyejoo all declared.

“Yerim, Yuqi! Why aren’t you in your dorm?” I cleared my throat, desperately trying to change the subject. “You could get in trouble.”

“We decided that a mandatory curfew was the perfect excuse for a sleepover!” Yerim answered, her smile broadened, “And because Sana unnie suggested we took turns looking after you tonight.”

“Precisely, we are not going to let something bad happen to you.” The orange haired girl reached for my hand, interweaving her fingers with mine. “I’m not gonna let it happen again.”

“Again?...” Yuqi’s curiosity was the only brave enough to jump out and point to the elephant in the room. I could say she was containing herself too much, because usual Yuqi would have asked so much more, like ‘ _ Who did this happen to?’ _ or ‘ _ What are we trying to avoid from happening again?’ _

But there was something keeping Yuqi and really, everyone from making more questions.

“It happened before you all were here.” If my eyes were working correctly, Sana’s eyes crystallized, unfocused at the ground. Ignorant to the six girls staring at her with curiosity. “It really isn’t a favorite memory for anyone present, but I know you will be okay, and that’s what matters.”

“Unnie…” Ryujin reached for Sana’s shoulder, as her distress was getting more and more evident to the naked eye. 

“We’ll let you rest now.” Sana broke out the silence, squeezing my hand tighter and placing a tender kiss in my temple. 

The girls arranged their guard times taking care of me. Heejin agreed on staying all night, since this was her shared room with Ryujin, and the others rotating in between hours. 

Together, Hyejoo and Yuqi brought from the living room an armchair for the one in turn to sit comfortably, placing it right beside the bed I was going to spend the night in. I took advantage of the movement in the room, buttoning up my nightgown.

They were moving from one side to another, talking and exchanging words that my mind eventually blurred out. My eyelids felt heavier with every drink and bite of the food they got me, but I was determined to finish them. After all, letting some time pass after blacking out and letting my senses slowly recover themselves made me realize how much my stomach was already pleading for food. And the food in this place was always far from bad. 

It was a bittersweet memory. Those nights I spend with Sana, Ryujin and Heejin fooling around in the kitchen. I got to admit that our baking was never as good as the stuff they served at dinner, but I learned that eventually, it wasn’t about the food.

Even when I didn’t understand anything Yuqi was throwing at me all those ‘studying afternoons’, for me it wasn’t about the endless investigations. Hyejoo was not one to be social, but we bonded in unconventional ways and even though it was technically Yerim’s job to take care of me, it never felt forced. 

I liked them, but my little adventure was hurting them, and everyone in here. 

I opened my eyes, unaware of the exact moment I had closed them. The frenzy that surrounded me last time I remember being conscious was no more, as well as the dim gray light leaking from the windows, now replaced with a more black-ish gray. Apparently the tutors were not really able to fix the gray sky issue before dusk, because at this hour, you could usually contemplate the dark blue freckled canvas, on the other side of the wall.

My body rocked side to side a little, trying to find another comfortable position. My eyes battled to focus on my surroundings, as the absence of moonlight made everything feel eerie and empty. I gently tried sitting upright on the bed, with a sensation still painfully pressing against my skull.

Through the darkness, my eyes could vaguely make up Heejin’s bed at the other side of the room, and a sleepy sigh coming from that direction confirmed it’s owner profoundly sleeping on it.

“Eden? Are you feeling alright?” A voice sounding closely to my right made my heart skip a beat. But I immediately knew the owner, as who could possibly sound cheery at this time of the night, in this situation? 

“I’m okay Yerim,” Putting the light headache and the cold, lurid, nightmarish look the entire room seemed to give, I felt physically better than before, but with all the ideas circling my mind, I could not say the same about how I felt sentimentally. 

“Can’t sleep?” Even if I couldn’t really distinguish her silhouette clearly, the sound of steps and the consequent sinking of the mattress at my side indicated the girl had moved by my side, “If you want I can read you a bedtime story, I could sing you a lullaby, or if you are into cuddling too, if that helps.”

“Don’t worry, I’m feeling alright.” A drought in my throat made my voice raspier than usual. I tried clearing it, with no positive result. 

“Wait, let me bring you water, that might help out.” The mattress sprung back up as Yerim weight lifted from it. A hiss and a click after, the room lighted in a dim yellow, warm tone, emanating from a lantern that Yerim held up. 

She moved rapidly across the room illuminating the different furniture searching, mumbling and repeating  _ water, water, water _ under her breath. 

“Don’t worry about it,” I just wanted to go back to sleep and stop bothering others. “You don’t have to...”

“I’m going to ignore whatever you wanted to say,” She interrupted, approaching back to me with a large bottle filled with water. She left the lantern on the nightstand and poured the liquid in an empty glass residing next to it. The girl rested back on the bed, and extended the glass to me. “Drink, I hope it helps.”

My trembling hands raised the glass up to my lips, and with each sip I felt a bolt of freezing shudders traveling my body. I emptied the glass quicker that expected, and thankfully my throat was feeling a lot much better.

“Thanks…” I muttered, handing back the empty drinking vessel.

“Eden…” Yerim took the glass from my hand, putting it on the nightstand, gently as to avoid waking Heejin sleeping at the other side of the room. I felt her tender fingers pulling some hairs away from my forehead, taking them behind my ear. “You don’t need to keep everything to yourself. That’s what we are all here for, that’s what I’m here for.”

“It’s basically your job.” I refuted. “I just don’t want to make it harder for you.”

“You think I view taking care of you as another chore?” Her tone confused me. Was she mad? Sad? Making fun of me? Her face didn’t make it clearer for me either. 

“Yerim…”

“Do you remember your first day here?”

I nodded at her question and a stream of memories started flooding my brain. How she begged for Yeji and Mina to go further down a path they shouldn’t be wandering around, just to help a voice she heard, to help me. And the way she was the first real friendly face in an ocean of confused and annoyed ones. All before being assigned as my tutor.

“I was so excited when they called me for a welcoming ceremony. Being a tutor for me, was like being your first friend,” A smile was painted across Yerim’s face as she snuggled comfortably at my side. “I remember when I first arrived here, everything is just so confusing and new. If it wasn’t for Heejin’s patience and warmth…”

“Heejin was your tutor?” I questioned, placing my sight on the ruffling sheets on the other side of the room.

“She still is.” She chuckled. “You see, being a tutor is not just about showing you how stuff around works. Because even when they try to remind and convince us there is so much more around watching for us, all we know we have is each other.”

I felt a knot getting tighter and tighter in my throat and my eyes stung badly. And Yerim’s sweet and tender voice was definitely not helping. I resisted the urge to ask what  _ much more around _ meant, afraid of receiving the same answer they always deliver. I knew they were talking about  _ The Master.  _ But how could I have failed in my only job so bad? So bad they don’t even know if I’m real? My job was to listen to them, to make them happy. It was my duty to give answers to all their worries and care for each one of them. I thought I knew everything, but now…

“Eden?” Yerim noticed the cold droplet of water that was falling from my eye, caressing my cheek on it’s way down. 

“I’m so sorry…”

A white flash coming from the windows overwhelmed the room, followed by a rumble strong enough to shake the ground. Yerim and I jumped in shock wrapping each other tightly in fear, with Heejin springing out of bed. I felt my chest rapidly pouding as the later girl moved swiftly to inspect through the window.

“What was that?” Her raspy, still sleepy voice urgently questioned. 

“You know Unnie, I would tell you if I knew,” The girl hiding under my arms babbled. “But it can’t be okay.”

I gently tapped Yerim’s head to what she slowly let go from me. Struggling, I carefully stood from the bed, walking to where Heejin warily kept her eyes on the gardens behind dorm 3. 

“Please go back to bed,” Heejin demanded me, turning around and heading towards the door. “I’m going to get Sana Unnie to ask if we should make something about this.” 

As the door opened and closed behind me, I couldn’t help myself from separating my eyes from the window. There was little that was visible on the other side of the walls that enclosed us. The gardens that were usually lighted by the moon, with dancing arrays of purple and blue shining back from the leaves on the tree ring surrounding the institute, were now only visible in a very dark arrangement of grays. 

“Come on,” I heard Yerim calling me. “We’re going to be okay.”

But her voice sounded muffled in the distance. I recognized the symptom right away, but I didn’t feel like fainting again, instead, my eyes slowly focused more and more in the darkness outside. The wind ruffling the feathers of the colorless trees and bushes. 

No. Not every bush was being ruffled by the wind. Only one specific from the right. But then, logically it wasn’t the wind shaking it up. 

“Eden?...” Yerim called again.

The sight was somehow so familiar to me that the sound of agitated leaves resonated like a flashback to some other time, something that had happened before, like when…

The fox. It’s puffy tail sprung from the bush my eyes had fixed on. Soon, its four paws were trotting through the gardens. It looked rushed, scared even. It’s head moved frantically, looking for something, or someone. That’s when I felt it’s piercing orange eyes landing on my silhouette and a sudden urge to go running to it invaded my body.

Another white streak of light inundated the room, but this time my eyes captured it’s source. A flashing glowing crack in the sky dome, that made me and the fox startled. 

I couldn’t wait anymore. I did not realize exactly when, but my hand was already turning the knob on the door, my bare feet barely handling the cold tile below them as we sprinted towards the main door. I heard Yerim screaming behind me as I catched a blurred glimpse of a reclining Yuqi bouncing on her feet, and discussing Heejin and Sana snapping her heads towards me. 

But all that was blown away from my mind when I opened the door out of the dorm. The wind whistled deep and strong through the empty hallways, making the lamps swing violently. The branches from the tree in the courtyard were angrily hitting against the walls containing it. I held my breath as I took a hard turn to my left, stepping to the gardens through a pair of doors angrily swaying open. 

My arms protected my face as my feet carried me through enough open terrain for the fox to spot me, jogging towards me. The wind was slightly pulling me back, until my weak body couldn’t move anymore and my knees dropped on to the grass.

“ _ Master!”  _ The fox’s voice stormed into my mind, “ _ Are you alright?” _

“I need to go back!” My voice cracked under all the emotional pressure I released at once, tears flowing down my cheeks, watering the meadow bellow. “I can’t stay here anymore.”

“ _ They need you Master. You just can’t turn you back on…”  _

“No! They don’t need me!” Another bolt of light flashed in the sky, but at this point, it wasn’t surprising me.

_ “It is you…” _

“What?! Why do you keep saying such vague stuff?! Why is it always me that has to look for the answers of every damn puzzle?!”

_ “That’s what you have always done. And this time you came to solve the biggest, most baffling one there’s ever to solve.”  _

“And what is that?”

“ _ Love.”  _ I gathered enough strength to raise my head and look at my furry friend for a second, it’s eyes not letting mine go. “ _ But Master, there is no need to solve this one alone.” _

“EDEN!” Heejin’s broken shout filled the air, making my whole body spin to face the door behind me.

Heejin, Sana, Yuqi, Ryujin, Yerim and Hyejoo were there, all battling against the wind and darkness to get to me. Them, the ones I wanted to leave behind were trying to reach me, they tried getting to me all this time. Without realizing the windwhirls of my mind were keeping them far, and keeping my mind dark and blurry. 

Out of nowhere, a last crack of light adorned the sky, making the strong winds come to a full stop. Some of the girls heading towards me fell down thanks to the force being applied into walking against a force, as the others helped them stand up.

“It was me…” A whisper barely audible, but enough for the fox to capture it too. It nodded towards me, as it dawned on my mind. The weather acted in response to me. “But why did… How?”

_ “Oh Master. You were able to do this and so much more before.”  _ The fox camly stepped closer to me. “ _ Some sacrifices had to be made for you to achieve this form. We don’t know how much you can get back but these things tell us you didn’t lose it all.” _

“Eden, please...” Yuqi, who had watched me before interacting with the fox, was standing closer to us than the rest. “What is going on?”

But I couldn’t bring myself to tell them the truth. There was no sound coming out from my mouth even when I felt my lip part and tried to emote something.

“We just want to help you.” Yerim cried. I went around all their faces, some had their eyes swelled, others were staring at me upset and hurt.

“But we need to know what you need help with.” Ryujin added.

“Or at least who we are really helping.” Hyejoo disputed, making the others snap their heads towards her.

_ “Might as well start with the truth Master…”  _ The fox gave my shoulder a rub with its head. We both knew there was no  _ Eden-ing _ out of this one.  _ “Honesty sounds like a good first step coming onto this complex new puzzle.” _

I swallowed the lump that was formed in my throat, stood up and raised my chin to the sky. 

A single drop of water landed directly on my nose. Then one on my cheek, and another in my temple. Little droplets started pouring down on us, the girls looked up dumbfounded as the water was getting them too. But I did not falter, I knew it was my mind, preparing to lose the trust of the people in front of me. But my friend beside me was right. Maybe I had to win their trust back, but as myself. As  _ The Master _ I had to be.

“Sana…” The single word came out of my mouth made all the girls snap their heads towards me. Trembling, I felt more words escalating from the back of my throat. “Remember what we talked about under the northern lights a week ago?”

“Yes…” The orange haired girl sneaked closer at my call. 

“I’m so sorry I couldn’t answer you like you wanted me to.”

“Eden, what are you talk-”

“I am  _ The Master. _ ”

A collective gasp was heard escaping from the six girls in front of me. Their eyes as wide as the moon, some even bringing their hand up to their mouth to hide their hanging jaw.

“I’m so sorry girls…” My voice broke again as I continued. “I’m sorry that I am not  _ The Master _ you all have heard about. I am not almighty, neither all-powerful. I know I was supposed to take care of you, to answer you questions...”

The pressure of the silence surrounding me crushed my mind with each second passing. I looked at them, waiting for them to say something, but nothing came out of their mouths. Our nightgowns at this point were dripping wet, but that was the thing that bothered everyone less in this tempest of emotions.

“Please let me start again…”

“But how can we trust that you are going to tell the truth from now on?” Hyejoo growled and my heart sank to the bottom of my stomach.

“I guess, you can´t, but I promise it was never my intention to harm you, to lose control over all of this. But I realize now how much more I have to learn.” My mouth did anything to stop bearing the pain I felt was inflicted in me as my eyes shut close, avoiding pouring as much water as the sky. “I comprehend every reason you have to be furious with me, and I’ll understand if you are even angrier at me now. I’ll take it. But I came here to answer a question, to fix this, and I then, I promise I’ll go”

I felt a body slamming against mine, it’s arms surrounding my chest, tightly holding me as if they didn’t want to let me go ever again. I recognized the perfume, and the rebellious hairs tickling my neck.

“I knew there was something different about you from the very beginning. I just didn’t know where to start looking.” Yuqi’s deep voice swept across my collarbone. “I guess that’s a mystery solved.”

The drizzle around us became a downpour. My arms circled her shoulders as she tightened her embrace around me. I felt a crushing pressure releasing off of my back, allowing my eyes to slowly reopen. Breaking the embrace, she moved her draping curls away from her face, revealing a tender and comforting smile behind them.

“What?” I chuckled, a sigh escaping my mouth as I, curious, wanted to know what made Yuqi so blindly come to me.

“My suspicions were technically confirmed last week, when you had no problem communicating this little fella,” Her hand reached for the fox, who was patiently witnessing it all come together. Yuqi’s eyes roamed all around my face, with her thumb raising up to clean a few tears resting on my cheeks, or raindrops, or both. “Every box checked out, but I really didn’t want to assume stuff.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t bring myself to tell y-”

“But now the question is why did you lose control when you are well…  _ The Master _ ” Yuqi, in her regular fashion, interrupted me for the sake of not interrupting her thought train, her eyes getting lost in the horizon on the back of my shoulder. “There must have been some disruption in the power source or… Do you have a power source?”

“I-”

“Something may have happened that made you lose a lot of memories and knowledge, a fall? Did you fall when you arrived or-” She came into a halt, and her eyes snapped back to my face, and judging for her reaction, I conveyed on the outside, the same level of bewilderment I was feeling on the inside. “I think this is another mystery we have to solve together then.”

A smile spread widely across my face. I looked over her shoulder, watching the other 5 girls looking at each other confused at the exchange that just happened before them. I turned towards the ground, where the fox nodded in accordance, sharing both the same thought.

“It is a mystery that I’m going to need all your help to solve it.” I addressed the rest of the girls as my hand searched for Yuqi’s in support, my other hand extended towards them. “I’m not going to force anyone of you to do it, but I-”

Yerim's entire force crashed against me in a hug that took all the air out of my lungs.

“I still stand with what I said before,” Yerim’s shaky voice filled my eyes with tears again, taking a step back, her usual grin adorned her tired face. “You can count with me on this one, and all that follows.”

“Huh, who would have said I’ve been best friends with  _ The Master  _ all this time.” Ryujin approached me, “Do I still get to annoy you in choir class?”

“Y… Yes Ryujin.” 

“Then I’m in.” Ryujin surrounded me with both her arms tightly, when two other bumps surrounded us both.

Heejin and Hyejoo extended her arms around us, sighing deeply together. We stayed like that for a while, feeling the rain drench us to our cores. But when they broke the group hug I couldn’t help but notice one last figure standing alone, her cheeks were drenched from tears as much as rain. Her usual bright orange mane was joylessly falling from her shoulders.

“Sana-”

“Did you really come just to answer me?”

“I did.” Breaking free of the girl’s hold, I warily approached the latter, as her eyes scanned me from my feet to the top of my head. “And being completely honest with you, I don’t have the answer I wish I had. I have no answer whatsoever.”

Her eyes locked on mine as I kept approaching, her arm crossed around her chest, her fingers fidgeting. I had run out of ideas to show her that I meant no harm, but maybe one last try wouldn’t harm. I reached for her hand, carefully preceding and waiting for her consent to grab it, releasing a sigh when her fingers interlocked with mine. I gently pulled her towards me, just like a week ago, the night she trusted me with her secret.

“I thought I could get the answer by just coming down. Turns out it’s not really an easy thing to respond.” Her eyes wandered around my face, alternating between my eyes and my lips. “But if you agree on helping me, maybe together we can find out where to start looking for-”

Both her hands cupped my face, swiftly pulling my face to hers. Her soft lips captured mine. My breath halted for a second before gently releasing, letting my eyes close with the moment. Lingering intimately, her hands caressed my cheeks as she backed up for air, her breathing heavy against me.

All new terrain for me, I remembered some of the books I had read before, my hands wrapped her waist, pulling her closer. Her lips once again crashed with mine, but her hands freed my cheeks, now circling my shoulders. Cold drops of water intertwined in between us, as my senses overwhelmed with a perfume I had become so familiar with in my short stay. Parting again, Sana rested her forehead on mine, eyes still closed.

“If we are going to solve this together,” She whispered only to me. “that could be a good place to start.”

“Yeah…” My mind kept trying to process everything, my breath slowly coming back to rhythm. “It might be.”

“Look, it’s not like I don’t want you guys to… do that.” Ryujin’s voice returned me to reality, making me turn around, to watch the other five girls, covering their faces, their cheeks flushing red. “But a heads up will be very welcomed next time.”

Sana and I stumbled some steps back, awkwardly giggling. I felt my face burn intensely, as I turned and confirmed we both matched. I looked around, the girls were shivering from the cold wind and the drenched nightgowns. Rising up face to the sky, the downpour stopped, and the gray blanket dissipated at once. Behind it, the usual arrays of dark blue and purple canvas, freckled in white lights said hi for the first time tonight.

“I think it’s better to go back inside…” I broke the silence. “It’s definitely been an eventful night.”

“Hey…” Yerim’s voice made everyone swing their attention towards her. “Now that we know you are  _ The Master _ , how should we call you?”

Naming myself The Master wasn’t ringing correctly with me, but that was exactly who I was.

_ “You know Master,” _ The fox, now ready to say goodbye and sprint back into the forest, emerged one last time on my mind.  _ “Your human name suited you well too.” _

A gentle giggle escaped my mouth as I lost track of my furry friend, among the ring of trees in the distance.

“Eden.” The name broke free from my mouth, but now clear of the tiny lingering sensation of lying to them. “You can all call me Eden.”

I thought I knew everything. Turns out I don’t and that is okay, I don’t have to answer everything alone. Not anymore.

My job is to listen to them, to make them happy. It’s still my duty to give answers to all their worries, and care for each one of them. But mainly, my job now is to learn how to love them. It's going to be easier now, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please don't take any medical advise or reference from this chapter. Please.


	5. The Crown of Rejoicing, Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With her real identity out, the girls will try to help Eden in this journey of self discovery, but not everything is a rainbow before the storm. Sometimes you find out that not everyone you thought you could trust could be on your side.

  * **Genesis 1:15:** _“‘...and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.’ And it was so.”_



The grass grew greener and the flowers bloomed in colors never included in our imagination before. The trees danced, broadened by double the usual leaves they carried. An astonishing sight, lying always at the other side of every window that kept us trapped inside.

The teachers referred that night as  _ A sign The Master has brought upon us that they are still around us. Punishing us with an uneasy sky for the failures in our ways.  _ It was actually all a big accident, but one learnt how much the teachers loved theatrics. New disciplinary measures were put on hold all because of it. But in all honesty, how could something that brought so much life into our surroundings be a punishment? 

At least I hadn’t really meant it that way. To start, I really never intended it, but it happened.

“How is that going over there?” Ryujin’s voice boomed from the other side of the library, “We got lost over here playing with Seymour.”

“Seymour? Is that how you named the carnivorous plant?” Heejin snapped her eyes towards Ryujin, dumbfounded.

“It’s a cute name!” Ryujin defended her stance as she walked towards us. “And Yerim seems to like it too!”

Heejin snapped her head towards the younger girl still on the other side playing with the plant. Yerim was cooing it with an adorable voice but indistinguishable words.

“Try it again, I swear I saw a little bit of smoke coming out last time.” Yuqi stood besides me, not taking her eyes from the shrub in front of us.

“It looked no different to me,” I whined, sighing before trying for the millionth time to set the bush on fire. 

I locked my eyes on it, full concentration enabled. I took the deepest breath of air I had available, channeling everything in me that I could. The shrub remained unmoved, undisturbed until a light breeze of air entered through the window, nudging gently its foliage, almost as if nature was taunting me. 

“I don’t think this is working:” I shrugged, defeated.

“What if I gave you…” Yuqi quickly searched in her purse, getting a nicely tight buddle out of it. She unraveled the knot to reveal a warm croissant out of it, presenting it neatly towards me.

I couldn’t contain de gasp that escaped my mouth. My hands fidgeted towards it, but Yuqi yanked the bundle away.

“Hey!” I felt my stomach roar, craving a light snack before dinner that was still a few hours away. 

“I’ll give you _ this  _ if you manage to set the bush on fire.” She challenged me. 

I blinked at her unique methods of motivation, sighing deeply. Turning back around to face the bush, I planted my feet with might, shaking my shoulders to release tension. I closed my eyes, trying to gather all the ‘inner energy’ Yuqi had been drilling me about for the last week. 

I halted my breath, focusing all my concentration on the shrub trying to picture it on fire. Attempting not to break eye contact with it, I felt my eyes stinging before a few seconds of not blinking. My vision started blurring, dark edges appearing in my field of view as I felt heat rise in my cheeks. Maybe it was working, I started to feel warmth building up around...

“Eden, this is a friendly reminder to breath.” Yerim’s voice broke the tension, grounding me back. 

The instant I opened my mouth, my body let in a much needed breath. My head instantly hurt while my feet loosed up from the floor, making me trip around until Heejin caught me in her arms, stabilizing me. Yuqi slammed the book close over the table, complaining loudly.

“The book said it would work!” She whined. “Well, not precisely, but _ I _ thought it would work this time.”

“ _ Conditioned Reflexes _ by I. P. Pávlov” Ryujin read the book lying on the table, staring at it with a hesitant confusion. “Isn’t that the guy that trained dogs or something like that?”

“Are… Are you training me like a dog?” I furrowed my eyebrows towards her.

“I haven’t exactly found the guide on  _ How to train Masters to get their powers back _ !” Yuqi fired back. “I’m just trying the best I can!”

“Can I still get the croissant?” I pointed at Yuqi’s hand still holding the bundle. 

She glared at it and back at me, sighing in defeat. She extended her hand and placed it on mine, rolling her eyes before turning around to the shelves full of books still to be read away from us. 

I smelled the pastry in my hands, smiling deeply as it’s buttery scent warmed my thoughts. I cut it into pieces, offering some to Yerim, Ryujin and Heejin, who gladly took a piece of it. I arrived at Yuqi’s side as she rubbed her fingers over her temples. She didn’t even notice me extending to her a piece of the pastry, as I could see how her eyes traveled through the names of each aisle in the library.

“Hey,” I whispered, Yuqi leaped in her own place in surprise after I broke her thought train, locking her eyes on mine “We’ll try again tomorrow.”

She softly took the piece of bread, offering back a nod and a gentle smile. I could watch in her expression that she didn’t feel precisely happy, and admittedly, I didn’t either. 

Some weeks had passed since the day I confessed to be the Master to them. Yuqi, who was the most eager out of all of them about the idea, started from the next day to read and investigate everywhere she could about my powers, she wouldn’t stop asking me questions about them either. She waited for me outside of classes, leaping in excitement every time she had a lead. 

But that excitement was slowly wearing away, day by day where no matter what we tried together, there wasn’t any visible progress.

“I know what both of you need!” Yerim barged in with her signature joyful grin across her face, putting her arms around our shoulders. “Let’s go to the dorm and make a fort with pillows, I have a secret bag of cookies I can get too!”

“Sounds just about right.” I smiled at Yerim, who made even the simplest plans sound exciting with her enthusiasm. 

We both turned to Yuqi, who still glared at the floor, troubled by her thoughts. She took a deep breath, before turning around to us. 

“I’m in.” She nodded decisively.

To this, we all grabbed our things and tidied up the place, clean enough so that no one could suspect we were even there. Yerim and Ryujin went and said goodbye to Seymour, who stayed in the same position, the slow and tiny, potted carnivorous plant that was there even before me. We put the chairs back in the desks and started walking towards the exit when suddenly, we heard the heavy door burst open.

The girls in front of us all halted their steps as soon as they had a clear view of the visitors, Ryujin instinctively took cover behind one of the bookshelves, urging all of us to lay low beside her. We all followed, wary of the eerie tension it all created.

“What are you hiding from?” I whispered, walking forward, almost past the shelves covering my body. “Why are you all-?”

Heejin shoved her hand on top of my mouth, forcing me to cut my words early. I furrowed my eyebrows at her, but her eyes widened back firm over mine, one of her eyebrows raising up in defiance. I complied, sighing and putting attention to what was happening behind the shelves.

Two bright figures wearing white robes graced the aisles on the other side of the library, Mx. Sariel and Mr. Azrael. The teachers were so into their conversation that they thankfully didn’t notice our presence a few shelves away from them. The library was supposed to be ghostly empty at this hour, if only we all had not decided to skip our service duties to keep this going. 

“I was talking to you about this aisle right here.” Mx. Sariel walked across the library, guiding their hand to a specific shelf. I could watch the faint figures of the teachers across crevices between books, each one of us trying to peek through a different one. “All this is full of nonsense about girls travelling through the world with violence, telling them they are some kind of special person, different from others making them believe they have ‘saved the world’. If they keep reading about it, I believe it can engrain some misguided attitudes.”

“It is concerning that we had these books here to begin with.” Mr. Azrael’s voice never failed to make a chill travel through my spine. He grabbed one of the books sitting there, clear disgust in all his body language as he swift through the pages. “You were saying that the girls in Etiquette class are declining in obedience?”

“Quite so. To my surprise even the girls in the older generations are failing basic tasks, they don’t seem to concentrate enough.” Mx. Sariel nodded, staring skeptical at the prefect’s fingers flying through the pages of yet another book. “But the real predicament is the group with the youngests, I can’t seem to get them under control.”

“What a shame. They seemed so bright, full of potential.” Mr. Azrael slammed closed the book in his hand, making all of us hidden startled. “Hopefully it doesn’t have to come to what happened last time, I would not like to see such souls being put to waste. But if that is what is necessary to put the girls back on track-”

A sudden gasp escaped from Yerim’s mouth. All our heads snapped around to her, she had placed her hands on top of her mouth, shaking her head with her eyes shut. Heejin silently kneeled down to her, trying to calm her down. The silence in the library was enough to show that the teachers had listened to the gasp. I slowly peaked my eye through a little crevice, glancing at the teachers who now had their heads turned to us in confusion.

“ _ Don’t. Move. _ ” I mouthed at the girls. No sound came from my mouth, but for they understood perfectly with my twitching expression.

The sound of steps started cramming the silent weight of the room, each one making us shake more as they sounded closer and closer and closer-

An open window in a wall away from us shut closed abruptly, surprising even the teachers.

“The Master has been communicating a lot through the wind these days,” Mx. Sariel broke out, as I watched Mr. Azrael turned around in his steps to shut the window down for good, to what all of us let out silently a collective breath in relief. “I think he agrees with our ways.”

“ _ What!? _ ” I mouthed again, my forehead puckering as I slammed my eye between the books to pay close attention. “ _ I never said that! _ ”

“Then we must not take long to engrain these new measures you talked me about.” Mr. Azrael returned to the other teacher’s side, his chin raising up in dominance. 

“The rest of the teachers and I are taking every precaution possible.” Mx. Sariel explained, pointing at the shelves. “While we have the opportunity, we should get rid of every temptation possible.”

“There is even romance, indecent attitudes ingrained in some of their pages, this is temptation and sin at its highest. We must take them away before they raise too many questions.” Mr. Azrael nodded at the other teacher. “It is almost finishing time so I may suggest we move quickly, before the girls finish their labors and cram the recreational areas.”

Both figures walked to the exit in a serene silence. The door opened for them, closing gently behind their backs. We all let a collective sigh, sharing glances of relief.

“We need to move before they come back.” Heejin stood up, adjusting her clothes. 

Ryujin scanned around, signing us to continue our path to the doors. We warily walked between the bookshelves towards the exit, stillness in every single one of our steps as we swift across the library. 

The route seemed safe so far, with all the furnishing behind us, only the walk towards the door remained. Yerim let out a relieved chuckle and there were no more words needed, we all smiled at how close we were from getting into trouble and still didn’t get caught. Our breaths still trying to catch up to their normal rhythms.

Ryujin reached for the door handle, when a force from the other side of the door started pushing it in. The voices on the other side of it were instantly recognizable, making all of us gasp in terror. We were far away from any book shelf, table, column or any piece of furniture that could hide us all. 

Ryujin started stepping backwards, but tripped with Yuqi before both of them fell on the floor. Yerim and Heejin rushed trying to get them up, as I looked at the slow ray of light coming inside from the door opening. There was no way we could get away this time, there was not enough time to hide or run and we would all be given at least two strikes, all because we are trying this stupid game-

The door slammed back closed, a grunt of discomfort coming from one of the teacher’s voices on the other side of it. I flinched, startled, as the girls on the floor in front of me snapped their heads to the closed door. 

A force slammed against it. but it didn’t succumb open. They tried opening several times and to no avail. My eyes couldn’t leave the door handle, a disembodied force pushing back every time the teachers tried back to enter. 

I felt a strong blow pushed against me, making me stumble on my own feet. The door emanated a dense purple smoke through every of its fissures. Trying to come close to inspect it, another hard push almost managed to get the door open. I halted my steps and planted my feet on the ground with my sight on the door. 

A blinding white smoke appeared, engulfing the purple smoke emanating from the other side, until it eventually disappeared. There was another bang at the door, but this time so much less effective.

The loud sound of the clock in the courtyard marking the hour crammed the air, as the silent surrounding started filling itself with buzz from girls getting out of their classes and duties, filling the hallways. 

“Without the Master even this futile old building is revolting.” We managed to hear Mx. Sariel murmuring on the other side of the door. 

“The Master…” Mr. Azrael whispered back, resentment plastered all over his tone. My ears perked to listen more attentively. “Dependence gets exhausting after some time.”

“We must discuss this with the rest of the teachers.” Mx. Sariel continued. “We must try and retrieve temptations again later this night, after the girls have gone to bed.”

It was their steps heard farther away that finally allowed all of us to relax our stance. Yuqi turned around with her gaping mouth and sparking eyes directed towards me. Her mouth fumbled to find the exact words, to what her hands started motioning uncontrollably.

“Are you okay?” I questioned her, reaching for her shoulder. “Did the fall affected you in any wa-”

“That was you!” Yuqi managed to blurt out. 

“I- what?” I furrowed my eyebrows at the girl in front of me, when Heejin, Yerim and Ryujin all turned around to me, the same amazed expression on their faces. “Anyone care to explain?”

“It was you who didn’t let them come in!” Yerim leaped in excitement. “You should have seen it in your eyes, I know you were the one keeping the door closed!”

“I was?” I raised my hands, not realizing how strongly I was keeping them clenched. A fair amount of white smoke still emanating from them made me flinch in surprise. “Wait, I was!”

“That was…” Ryujin, still lying weary and dumbfounded on the floor, tried stabilizing her breath. “Awesome.”

I extended my hand towards her, helping her up. We all scanned each other, making sure we were okay. My eyes landed on Heejin’s who was looking at me astonished. I giggled, my cheeks blushing hard as a result of the attention. But just as my mouth opened trying to say something, Yerim jumped in my back, surrounding my shoulders in her embrace.

“The Master IS back!” She cajoled as she hung from me. 

The girls cheered around me, laughing and smiling at each other, their reactions a bit over done, maybe thanks to the relief of not being caught red-handed. But I couldn’t keep my mind away from the words of Mr. Azrael:  _ If that’s what’s necessary to get the girls back on track.  _ Even if they talked about trying to make everything they could to not get there, coming from the prefect’s mouth made it sound like a threat. 

I wanted to point it out to them, but I didn’t feel like interrupting their emotional state. I enjoyed seeing them happy, and maybe this new question was something to throw at them another day, for now, we had made enough for staying out of trouble.

A loud thump was heard against the door, followed by a high whine on the other side of it, one of a girl. We all rushed towards the door and everyone tried their turn on opening it to no avail, but the instant I put my hand on the handle, the door exhaled a slight puff of white smoke, allowing me to open it. 

I peeked outside, to discover the sight of a puzzled Sana on the other side of it, rubbing her nose with one hand as she picked up the books lying on the floor around her with the other. We rushed to help her pick those up, before I approached to check up on her.

“Let me check that…” I gently moved her hand away from her face, trying to look if the impact against the door had any major consequences.

“Don’t worry Eden,” She intercepted my hand as it traveled across her cheek, rubbing her thumb against the back of it. “I’m okay.”

Her eyes locked on mine, offering me a tender smile back. I felt heat rise to my cheeks, instinctively offering a grin back. She sighed, looking away when her face reddened too. Taking a step back as she fixed her hair, she gathered the books that the other girls helped pick up.

“That door is never closed, not for us.” Sana recalled. “It’s so weird-”

“It’s actually… not.” I answered with a chuckle. 

“You should have seen it!” Yerim jumped at the opportunity to narrate the events of the afternoon. “At first, Eden was trying to set a bush on fire and turns out croissants are not her power source cause it was all a complete fail, so we were ready to give up for today when suddenly Mr. Azrael and Mx. Sariel barged in and we were super scared because we were not even supposed to be in there, but then Eden slammed the door right in their faces and kept them from entering with her almighty MAGIC!”

The rest of us stood there, dumbfounded at the rushed and overly enthusiastic retale from Choerry. It took a second to settle in, Sana let out an incredulous sigh before rubbing her temples, trying to recall all that just happened.

“What… What was that you said at the beginning?” She questioned.

“That croissants are not Eden’s power source?” Yerim tilted her head at Sana’s question.

“Before that.” 

“That we were trying to set a bush on fire?” Yerim recalled. “We came to the conclusion that we should start with little things so that Eden could eventually control back her Master powe-”

Sana’s hand rushed to cover Yerim’s mouth. The latter furrowed her eyebrows, the rest of us squinting our eyes at the sudden gesture.

“Don’t say that out loud, even worse in public.” Sana whispered to us as she scanned around. “Follow me, I know where we can go.” 

She took my hand in hers, turning around to the hallways as the rest followed behind. We jogged quickly through the courtyard and past the classrooms, girls all around waving hello or looking weird at us as we passed by. We traveled all the way to the back of the building where no one of us had been before. Sana opened a door that none of us had even seen before, leading into a narrow room full of brooms, mops, buckets, cloths and cleaning liquids. We closed it after we were all inside, a tiny window in the upper corner of it being our only light source.

“Hiding in a maintenance closet,” Heejin sneered, looking over her shoulder at me. “Where have I seen this one before?”

I giggled at her comment, remembering our untimely first meeting. Sana gasped after making sure there was no one following us or outside the door, turning around to face us, her expression full of distress.

“What were you thinking?!” Sana snapped at us, making us flinch. “Didn’t I tell you not to tell anybody else about this?”

“We haven’t told anybody!” Ryujin defended back. 

“But practicing their powers out in public?” Sana covered her face with her hands, breathing deeply. “What would you have done if the bush actually caught on fire? How would you get away with that?”

“We just thought-” Yuqi stammered. “We just thought that if we helped Eden get her powers back-”

“I’m not against that, I promise you I’m not.” Sana pledged, turning her head to face me. “But please be more careful, you have no idea how dangerous it can be if someone discovers your true identity.”

“The teachers can’t do anything against Eden,” Yerim added. “We just showed them who’s boss! I mean, she just showed them that-”

“Yeah!” Ryujin continued. “And if we get all the girls on Eden’s side, there’s no way they keep making our lives impossible!”

“I could help you get all your freedoms back.” I joined, my hand searching for Sana’s. “Think about it love, maybe they would underst-”

“They hate you!” Sana lashed out, jerking her hand away from mine. “The girls… the older girls. They don’t like you.”

The room halted in surprise. All eyes rested hesitant on the orange haired girl, who scanned around warily trying to remedy the situation.

“Sana?” I tried reaching for her again, but she flinched at my touch.

“Well, it’s not like they don’t like  _ Eden _ …” She avoided my eyes, mumbling. “But they don’t particularly like The Master.”

I looked up back to her, my mind replaying all those times that I heard her call my name, not in good faith. A knot tightened in my throat as those memories kept flooding inside of me, sighing as I nodded, taking a step away from her.

“Like you used to hate me too?” I choked out.

“No Eden, I-” Sana swallowed hard, trying to easen her temper. She rushed back to my side, snaking her arms around my shoulders and leaning her head towards mine. “I never hated you, but the Master…”

“You know I’m the same…” 

Sana pulled my chin with her hand to face her, joining her lips with mine with an apologetic softness. She swiftly traveled to my cheek, kissing it hesitantly before locking her eyes on mine. 

“It’s dangerous.” She shook her head. “A lot of them haven’t really forgotten, less forgiven you for all that you did before coming down, and if they manage to know who you are-”

“For all that I did?” My eyebrows furrowed, trying to gather any information of my past still in my memories, but nothing came to mind.

“Just promise me that you’ll keep it a secret.” Her glossy eyes pierced mine, pleading. “Please.” 

My mouth tried to form coherent phrases as it stuttered, feeling the stares of the rest of the girls in the room resting on me as they waited for my answer. I had to avert my eyes from Sana’s, as I took a deep breath before answering.

“No one will know.” I shut my eyes, clenching my fists. “I promise no one but us will know about this.”

* * *

Another ordinary day had passed, the last rays of sunshine hid behind the horizon, far away from the trees surrounding The Promised Land. The dimming colors of dusk marked the time for the lanterns to spark on with their fire to light the different corridors and rooms of the building. 

After a hearty dinner and an afternoon of good conversations, most girls in dorm three were heading to their rooms to kiss the day goodbye. One by one they left the common room, as I dwelled in there for hours on end in the darkness, sitting in one of the couches trying to swallow Sana’s words from earlier in the week. 

The clock in the wall in front of me marked midnight, as the usual thoughts managed to creep into my brain at the most casual moments, making me desperate to understand. I tried asking her why didn’t they like me, but every time she dismissed the conversation. The silence of being left alone didn’t help either, I just wanted to fix whatever I did to cause them so much pain, but how could I…

“Hey Eden,” Ryujin’s voice coming from behind me broke my thought train. I turned around to face her. She leaned against a column as Heejin stood besides her. “We know you haven’t been feeling particularly well these days. And to cheer you up a little we’ve been thinking...”

“We thought maybe we should go out to the kitchen and bake something!” Heejin continued, “You know, like the good old times!”

I giggled at their eagerness, standing up to meet them in the middle. 

“Sana already went to sleep guys-”

“Well yeah, you have been spending a lot of time alone with her these days,” Heejin added, playing nervously with her hair. “Nothing against that of course-”

“Without those training sessions to ‘ _ get your powers back’ _ we haven’t really spent much time together, and I feel like you have been neglecting your best friend for a while.” Ryujin jokingly punched my arm as she neared me, Heejin clearing her throat as she approached close behind. “And Heejin misses your cute face too.”

“Hey!” Now it was Heejin’s turn to slap Ryujin’s arm playfully. “I didn’t say it like that!”

I chuckled at their banter, a slight hint of nostalgia for those days when I first met them travelled through me. But there was this nagging sensation in my conscience, that didn’t want to go away.

“Thanks guys,” I started, fidgeting my hands behind my head. “But I don’t think it’s a safe option to go out now.”

“Oh c’mon!” Ryujin whined and bounced in her place. “Since when are you  _ Miss I Only Follow Rules!?  _ ”

“Yeah, you never cared about those before!” Heejin giggled, remembering our first escapades to the kitchen. 

“I’m just afraid guys-”

“Afraid? What have you got to be afraid of, Eden?” Ryujin placed her hands on my shoulder, shaking them lightly. “You’re the Master!”

“Eden is what?” The sudden appearance of an unfamiliar voice sent creeps across our skins, as we warily turned around to know the owner of the question. 

Yves was standing in front of her room door, staring at us with squinted eyes and lower brows, her flushed face and clenched fists. All our thoughts paralyzed, thinking how did we not listen to the door opening, or the steps coming in closer. 

“Eden’s a master at... cooking!” Ryujin trembled her words at the sight of the older girl. “You should watch her baking in the kitch-” 

“I know what I heard Ryujin,” Yves spat, as she dangerously marched towards me, but my body didn’t let me do anything but glance at her, my breath accelerating. “Is it true?”

“I-” I stuttered, my mouth betrayed me, refusing to let any words out.

Yves grabbed my shirt by the collar, hostilely pulling me closer to her. She glared through my skull, waiting impatiently for the answer. The action made Ryujin and Heejin gasp, they rushed to my side in panic, halting just a few steps away when Yves snapped her eyes towards them.

I felt my palms and forehead sweating as the room around us went dark, grey dense clouds expanding in the sky in a matter of seconds, covering the light of the moon and the stars. 

“Is. it. True?!” Her words stabbed in the dimming light.

“It is Yves.” I finally brought myself to talk, struggling to get out of her grip that tightened with each second passing. “I am The Master.”

Yves let my shirt go, her eyes widening and her mouth hesitating every word, as she hesitantly examined each crevice of my face. But in an instant, the shocked expression turned into one of rage. I started backing up but it was too late; her hands found their way, slamming against my shoulders. Cornered by her grasp, she slammed me against a column, my back and my rebounding head taking the impact.

“What did you do to them?!” She fumed. “Where are they?!”

“I have no idea what you are talking about!” I choked on my own words, the weight of her hands against my chest hindered my breath, as I desperately tried to get out of her grip.

“Yeah sure, the most powerful being can’t remember anything?” She sneered, slamming me against the column again, pure anger flowing through her eyes. “I hope you enjoyed having a body cause I’m going to make you wish you never had one.”

I shot my eyes closed in anticipation but her entire weight banished, suddenly breaking me free. My weight fell on the ground, trying to even my breath. I snapped my eyes up, trying to focus in the dim light of the night. Heejin and Ryujin holded Yves back, trying to calm her down.

“Stop defending a monster!” She quivered with rage, struggling to get out of the girl’s hold. “They have never cared about us!”

Lighting filled the room with an eerie brightness, allowing me to see the anger on Yves face for a fraction of a second. Sana’s words echoed in my mind like painful jabs in my brain. Out of words, I tried to explain to Yves, but my throat burned every time I tried to talk. Heejin rushed to my side, kneeling besides me as her eyes alarmingly scanned my entire body. Her hands gently cooped my cheeks trying to help me regain my composure.

“Please listen to us” Ryujin tried to settle Yves down to no avail.

“I know enough.” Yves managed to jerk away from Ryujin as she rapidly approached back to me. 

Heejin surrounded me with her body, putting a barrier between us as we both braised for whatever was happening inside the nearing girl’s mind. 

“You’re going to have to go over me first.” Hyejoo's sudden voice crammed the room. I raised my eyes to see her standing between Yves, Heejin and me. I knew about her strength, but Hyejoo was so pacific that she mostly decided not to use it against anyone, so her entrance to the conflict surprised each and every one of us.

“Move Hyejoo.” Yves mumbled.

“No.” She moved forward, making the older girl back her steps. “I’m on her side.”

“After everything I’ve done for you,” Yves furrowed her brows at the younger girl, “You’re going to side with exactly who I told you to be careful with.”

I managed to perceive Hyejoo’s figure, her hands fidgeting as she swallowed hard at Yves’ words. Her feet planted in front of her, as a deep breath filled her posture with courage.

“You never told me why I had to be afraid of them, I just knew that I was, to a paralysing point,” The newfound determination within Hyejoo made Yves stumble on her own feet as she backed off. “And while you spend your days telling me to be quiet and to lay low, I’ve seen Eden being kind and standing up against injustices, not only for herself.”

“Hyejoo, I’m…” The older girl’s expression shifted in a second. Her eyes widened as she tried searching for words to say back. “I was trying to-”

“I have found a friend that encourages me to be myself in her,” Hyejoo snapped back before even giving her a chance. “I don’t care what you say she has done before, she has my trust.”

“You have no idea what you’re saying,” Yves claimed. “You don’t know The Master like I do.”

“And you don’t know Eden like we do.” Ryujin sided with Hyejoo. Heejin put my arm around her shoulders, gently helping me up. 

“I promise I just want to help,” I whispered as I could, making everyone turn their eyes to me. “I know I did a lot of wrongs, that’s why I came here. If you just give me the chance-”

“Give me one reason to trust you now.” Yves glared straight through me, the violent comeback made Ryujin and Hyejoo grab the older girl's arms in prevention.

“I can’t-”

“But I can.” Sana’s voice broke through the tense atmosphere. Her eyes locked on mine, each fiber of her body stabbing me as they yelled at me  _ ‘I told you’ _ . She snapped her eyes back to Yves and sprinted towards me, not letting her eyes lose sight of the girl threatening us. 

“How could you Unnie…” Yves furrowed her eyebrows at Sana, a mix of genuine confusion and treason conveyed by her voice. “How can you dare after everything we have seen, everything they have done-”

“And they’re the only one that can undo it too.” I felt her fingers interlocking with mine, as she pulled me closer towards her, tugging me out of Heejin’s embrace. “They’re on our side now, I’m- we’re not wasting this opportunity.”

Yves’ stance relaxed, her eyes lowering to the floor as she avoided all the girl’s glances at her. I could see her mind working, trying to comprehend the depth of the situation. An awkward silence lingered in the broad hall. I tried walking towards her, but Sana pushed me back, gently shaking her head.

Yves started approaching me, making everyone enter a state of alert. Her fists were clenched, her arms swinging freely. Sana stood even closer to me, trying to shield me from her next attack. Her steps halted when she was close enough, her finger rising up to my face behind Sana’s shoulder.

“If you ever dare doing harm to any of them I’ll be the first one to send you back out of this place, just like you did to them.” She spitted out as a last warning, “You’re standing on thin ice.”

  
  



	6. The Crown of Rejoicing, Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tired to be kept in the shadows about her own past, Eden will try everything fix her past mistakes. But there's always a reason that some things are meant to be kept a secret.

A warm streak of light landing on my face called me softly to open my eyes. The sun was rising across the horizon, far on the other side of the window as its rays greeted gently the Promised Land on another ordinary day. This sight was always my indicator to start the day, so I sighed in defeat and prompted my body up with energy, only to be forced back down by a sting on the back of my head.

“Auch?!” My hands bolted up instinctively to the spot where it hurt while my eyes shut close. Touching the back of my head also hurt, but there wasn’t any sign of a wound or blood there. 

“Just lay down babe.” Sana’s whisper suddenly came out from behind my back, surprising me. I tried turning around but discovered pretty quickly that moving fast triggered the sting in my head.

“How long have you been there?” I asked, carefully rubbing the back of my head. 

“Easy there…” She took my hands in hers before I could keep pressing my head, all with a delicate charm to her, “Just for a couple of hours.”

“Did you sleep at all?” 

“I tried. I spend a good deal of the night trying to convince Yves to say nothing about what happened last night.” Sana’s hands started fidgeting over mine as her eyes scanned my face. “She told me she was going to keep the secret as long as nobody was affected.”

“Well that’s good to hear.” I grunted, the sting inside my head lightly reminding me of its presence. “I was worried I had to go out and be slammed against a wall by the other girls too.” 

“Does it hurt?”

I wrongfully nodded vigorously. The gesture made my skull feel like someone was stabbing me from behind, making me jerk my hands out of Sana’s and bring them to the back of my head while I folded in pain.

“Here, let me have a closer look at that.” Sana climbed the bed besides me, surrounding my chest with her legs as she gently removed my hair away from the spot that hurt the most. She softly passed her fingers on top of it. “Looks just like a tiny bruise, probably a concussion too. Just rest a couple of days and you’ll be fine.”

“I can’t…” I mumbled, her head rested on my shoulder as I felt her chest raising and falling against my back. “I got Etiquette Class today, and you know Mx. Sariel doesn’t precisely like me a lot so I have to be there on time, and later I promised the girls that I would-”

“You need to get some rest or otherwise your head is going to keep hurting.” She contradicted, her breath warm against my neck. “I guess you can’t skip class but the girls will understand if you postpone your little afterschool game for a day or two.”

“Our little what?” My eyebrows furrowed. 

“Eden, listen.” Her fingers moved away the hair in my forehead, her eyes urging me to look back at her. “I know what you guys are trying to do, but look what ended up happening to you.”

“It was an accident-”

“A very preventable one babe.” My eyes finally gave in and landed on hers, They were full of worry and sadness, a plea coming from her soul. “I don’t know what I would do if something happened to you-”

The door of the room creaked open, the sound making Sana jump back and breaking her embrace on me. The little faces of Heejin and Ryujin peaked through the opening, their eyes landing on directly over me. I nodded at them with a simple smile, allowing them to come in.

“Hey…” Ryujin walked towards the bed. “We just wanted to check up on you after what happened last night.”

“And we wanted to say sorry.” Heejin sat on the foot of the bed, nervously fidgeting with her hands. “I know Sana Unnie told us they wouldn’t react well but we didn’t think they would react so bad.” 

“And I had never seen Yves unnie so… angry.” A soft, groggy voice came from the other side of the room. Already sitting against the headboard of her bed, Hyejoo had probably listened to most of the conversation already. All our heads turned to her, the attention making her shrink her shoulders, but with a sigh, she decided to continue talking. “She’s mostly incredibly chill and yes, she can be bossy and annoying sometimes but... I don’t know, I was scared.”

“You didn’t look like it.” Ryujin smiled trying to offer her the most conforming smile possible. “I think that in a way, you saved us from being beaten meat.”

“Really?” Hyejoo’s eyes sparkled for a second, the faint shadow of a smile appearing on her lips, but it faced when another thought crossed her mind. “Ah, she’s not going to want to see my face in a long time, does she?”

“You can always grab lunch with us if you want to.” Heejin offered. “There’s always extra space in our table.”

A soft smirk appeared in Hyejoo’s face, nodding in gratefulness. I took the chance to slowly get up and walk towards the little cloak room. 

My hands roamed across the hanging dresses and jumpsuits in my side of the closet, all of them in neutral bright colors. The teachers always insisted that we wear those colors to ‘ _ irradiate more light and showcase our inside pureness and kindness on our outside’. _ But I’m not sure that works well, Mr. Azrael always wears robes in a blinding white and everyone is still very afraid of him.

Picking up one comfortable enough to spend the day, I then moved to the sink to wash my face and brush my hair. I tried making my moves as slow and gentle as possible, since any harsh action made the back of my head sting. As the brush travelled over the bruise, vivid flashbacks of last night crammed my brain. 

It was the first time I’ve seen someone get so taken up with this emotion everyone called anger. I didn’t think it was possible, it sounded so extreme and negative and it didn’t seem real that anyone could get that far. Everyone had been so nice in my stay in the Promised Land, that far from my aching head, the pure loathing in Yves eyes as she yelled back at me was the hardest image imprinted in my mind.

I don’t know what I did to them, neither do I even know who  _ they _ are. But I’m guessing it has to be something bad, or else, my real identity wouldn’t be such a problem.

I raised my head, making eye contact with my own reflection. I can’t say that I look at it often, recognizing myself in the mirror is always strange, as if there was someone on the other side trying to reach for me. 

Something called my eyes to the clock hanging on the wall. Breakfast time was almost over, and I wanted to grab a snack before going into the torment that was Etiquette Class, so I rushed my steps outside into the room, ready to ask one last question before beginning the day, and this time I had to ask it more directly.

“Sana?” I interrupted whatever conversation the girls in the room were having, everyone turning around to me, their ears perking up too. “What did I do to anger all of them so much?”

I noticed her mouth twitching, trying to find words. The pressure implied in the silence surrounding us intensified with each second that the bigger clock echoed in the room. By the looks over Heejin, Ryujin and Hyejoo’s faces, I could deduct that they didn’t know the answer to it either. 

That’s when Hyejoo’s words to Yves from the night before returned to my memory:  _ ‘You never told me why I had to be afraid of them, I just knew that I was, to a paralysing point’.  _

“And why are you keeping it a secret from us?” I added the question. But instead of getting an answer, Sana’s eyes jerked away from mine, her throat clearing up.

“Maybe we can talk about this later, you’re going to be late.” Sana stood up from the bed, placing a peck over my lips before stomping her way to the exit, and if my eyes weren’t deceiving me, her eyes glossed up as she looked back at us while opening the door. “I’ll see you later girls.”

And with those words she closed the door behind her, leaving all four of us stunned.

“Well what about we all gather in the afternoon, get some tea and some snacks, to calm down the mood,” Heejin broke the silence turning around to face me. “She can tell us then-”

“She’s not going to do it.” I cut her, slightly shaking my head. “It’s not the first time she evades the question.”

“Maybe she just needs a little convincing?” Ryujin scoffed. “You know, some flowers, a romantic candlelit dinner, you two dancing closely under the moonlight-”

“I don’t think that’s going to work.” My eyes furrowed at the girl, genuinely curious.

“Well, not with that attitude.” Ryujin crossed her arms over her chest, raising her eyebrow towards me. 

“Look, I don’t want to upset her any further,” I moved towards the door, wanting to rush them all out of my room. “And I don’t think we should be approaching anyone else about it. I don’t want to, you know-”

“End up beated or slammed against the wall again?” Heejin continued the phrase for me, letting me nod in response.

“There is someone that I think can help,” Hyejoo’s eyes stared at the floor as she sat at the edge of her bed. “I don’t talk to her much, but you guys do.”

We didn’t even have to say the name. Just a shared look in between Heejin, Ryujin and I, and we knew exactly how our afternoon was going to be spent.

* * *

“That happened wHAT!?” Yuqi snapped her head towards mine, her eyes scanning me from head to toe, looking for injuries. 

“Fine, I’ll repeat again.” I sighed, offering her an understanding smile. “Heejin, Ryujin and I were talking and we didn’t notice that-”

“I understood the first time, but gosh Eden are you okay?” She placed one of her hands over mine, while the other hovered in the back of my head. “That must have really hurt!”

“Well, I guess having a body is not all fun and games after all, but at least I get to taste stuff now.” I responded by drawing a smile on my face. I enjoyed how free with the humor I had become when I was surrounded by my friends.

“The first thing that Sana unnie tells us not to do and we blew that one up.” Heejin let her cheek fall into her hands, her elbows propped up over the table. 

“In our defense, Sana never mentioned how bad they could react to the news.” Ryujin sided with Heejin. “I thought she said it because she didn’t want anyone to try and be stealing her almighty powerful girlfriend!”

“Ryujin-” 

“Sorry Eden,” She plopped back against her seat, frowning. “But you got to admit she’s not much of the sharing kind.”

“Did anyone else hear you?” Yerim asked, her eyes scanning me with her caring nature while her hand roamed carefully through my hair.

“I don’t think they did.” I answered, “I would have a couple more bruises to prove if that were to happen.”

After a disheartened chuckle, silence fell on the table. Yuqi grabbed her cup of tea, sipping urgently while my eyes diverted behind her, glancing at the forest in the distance. A great deal of me wishing that anyone would appear out of there to help me with all my questions.

“But I can’t wrap my head around the why!?” Yuqi weakly slammed her cup against the table, making all of us flinch. Her head shaking at the endless possibilities that could lie in the answer. “I’ve never seen or heard of someone being that violent here, so whatever you did… It must have been bad.”

“Like  _ bad _ , bad.” Yerim emphasized.

“That’s what we came to you Yuqi.” Ryujin glanced towards her, her body stiffening at the mention of her name. “You know about everyone, every book, everything from around here, at least more than we do.”

Yuqi’s glance lingered on the floor, her cheeks painted in red thanks to the comment. A deep sigh came out of her mouth, while her hands clasped around her cup. 

“But I’m in one of the younger classes and there's so much that I still have to learn,” She murmured. “You know I would tell you everything I know but I’m empty this time around. I’m sorry guys.”

“Don’t be,” Now it was my turn to place my hand over hers, offering a comforting smile back to her. “We’ll try our best to get to the bottom of this. Together.”

"I don't know if this will help in any way, or even has something to do with all of this," Hyejoo suddenly entered the conversation after shying away in her chair for the entire afternoon. "But, I have a vague memory of hearing Yves Unnie talking about someone that I don’t think I have ever met. The Promised Land is not a huge place and I don't know if there's anyone called like that. I think it was her designated tutor-"

"Never in my existence I thought I would be able to hear you talk this much," We all turned around to the owner of the comment, just to find Yuqi staring straight at Hyejoo. Her head resting over her two hands, paying every ounce of attention that she could. "Keep doing it, your voice is cute."

"Al- alright?" Hyejoo's cheeks flared up at Yuqi's comment, she cleaned her throat before continuing. "I tried my best to see if anybody was named like that, but I'm not a very social person. I thought that maybe you could know?" 

"Me?" Yuqi straightened her back in surprise, a little spark glowing in her eye. "Are you talking to me?" 

"You know everyone in the school. I don't." Hyejoo averted her eyes away from Yuqi's, the attention making her a bit uncomfortable. 

"And who are we talking about now?" Ryujin barged in, trying to ease the tension for Hyejoo. 

"I think her name is Yoohyeon." Hyejoo blurted out. 

The table stayed silent, everyone trying to remember in silence if there was anyone in the Promised Land with that name. One by one our heads slightly shook, all it was left, was Yuqi to confirm what the table was already suspecting. 

"There's no one called Yoohyeon here." Yuqi furrowed her brows, her eyes landing straight into Hyejoo’s. "Are you sure that's what you-" 

"Pretty sure." Hyejoo responded quickly. "I tried asking Yves about her and she evaded every question, just like Sana did in the morning."

All eyes in the table landed on me at the mention of Sana. I gulped nervously, not really knowing where to continue the investigation. 

"That can't be just a coincidence." Yerim added. My hands fidgeted on top of the table, my sight concentrated on them. 

"I once asked Soyeon what life in the Promised Land was before I came." Yuqi added, "I expected her to just say ' _boring_ ', but she evaded the question too. Like if it was forbidden to talk about it."

"Who's Soyeon?" Hyejoo asked, trying to find the information inside her brain. 

"She's my tutor…" Yuqi answered, looking back at Hyejoo who still looked clueless. "Really? She's literally in your dorm."

"I told you I barely knew anyone." Hyejoo mumbled under her breath, shrinking in her place. 

"But then, following that pattern, do you think all the older girls know about it?" Heejin questioned. 

“Maybe,” I added. “I’m just not particularly enthusiastic about the idea of asking who knows and who doesn’t if it compromises my identity and my skull.”

“If only there was someone that we already knew that they know about you being the Master,” Ryujin sneered, resting her head on her hand over the table. “And also knows about this incident that we’re trying to discover.”

“Sana is not going to talk,” I scoffed, running around in my mind for any other ideas. “The issue seems to terrify her everytime I try to ask her.”

“There’s another one,” Ryujin raised her eyebrows, her eyes slowly travelling to rest in Hyejoo’s figure. “And it may be dangerous, but I know of a certain someone that can help with it.”

Even if I didn’t like the idea very much, it seemed like the best shot we had at gathering the information we needed. All of our glances turned around to rest on the younger girl, who barely had anytime to get used to the frenetic rhythm of our usual adventures.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Hyejoo looked around, her arms shrinking even more at the sudden attention. Hey eyes widened when suddenly something clicked inside her mind. “Oh no, there’s no way you’re making me do this.” 

* * *

Heejin’s hand gently roamed around my hair while my head laid in her lap as we waited together, alongside with Yuqi and Yerim that were reviewing their music and history assignments, their work sheets spurred all over my room’s floor. The sun was already preparing to set down on the horizon, no news coming from the other two girls waiting outside.

“Do you think this is going to work?” Heejin muttered, a faint smirk adorning her face.

“Not with complete certainty,” I incorporated, the sting in my head had downgraded just to a nuisance, bearable enough to move quicker. “I won’t lie to you, I think I’m very afraid.”

“Your entire body shaking at every weird noise coming from the outside isn’t much of a sign?” Heejin chuckled.

“I’m shaking?” I raised my hand to my face, locking my eyes on it. The stabler I tried to keep it, the more quivery it looked to me. “Yeah, I’m shaking.”

“Don’t worry, this time you have two more pairs of hands if anything escalates,” Yerim climbed up the bed, surrounding my shoulders with her arms. “We’re not going to let anything happen to you Eden.”

Just when I was getting comfortable in Yerim’s arms, the sound of the dorm’s heavy door opening brought all of us up, we only now needed the confirmation that-

“Hyejoo?” We managed to hear Yves' voice from the lounge as the door closed again. “What is going on?”

“I’m so sorry about this Unnie.” Hyejoo’s voice was the last thing we heard before hearing a ton of ruffles and complaining grunts. 

"What are you-" Yves whined, echoing throughout the entire dorm. "PUT ME DOWN." 

With that scream, the room scrambled up in a panic. Yerim and Yuqi tried to gather up their papers from the floor, while Heejin took my hand and stood up from the bed, pulling me with her. She put her body in front of mine, pushing me behind. 

"Stay back, if she tries to do something we'll stop her before she gets to you." Her thumb rubbed my palm in a reassuring and calming manner. "It will be okay."

The whines and hustling indicated that the girls were getting up the stairs already. I let out a long and shaky sigh, shutting my eyes for a second to try and compose myself.

"So one day you decide to betray me and everything I have ever taught you and the next you are basically kidnapping me?" Yves' voice traveled through the halls, bringing nearer to the door until Ryujin and Hyejoo crossed my room's door. Yves was being carried in between her arms, fighting against their hold. "What are they doing to you? You see what happens when-" 

The older girl's eyes took in the sight in front of her as the door closed behind her back. Ryujin and Hyejoo stood in front of the door while the rest of us just freezed there in fear. 

"Let me out." The older girl scoffed at Hyejoo, but the latter remained unmovable and speechless. 

"Not yet." Ryujin answered for her, "We need you to answer a couple of questions first."

"Ugh," she whined, turning her body towards me. Yerim and Yuqi tensed her bodies, ready to jump into action if necessary. "Your little girlfriend down there already begged me not to tell anyone about it. I've kept my promise and you don't have to worry about that anymore, okay? Now let me out of h-" 

"It's not about that." Heejin flatly cut her up before she could fully turn to face the door again. 

“Then what do you want from me?” She snapped back.

She turned around, her eyes squinting in confusion as they passed through everyone's faces. I took a deep breath, gathering the courage to finally ask the question. 

"Yves-" 

"How is it possible that in a room full of kindergarteners, the omnipotent deity is still the least threatening out of them all?" She scoffed, annihilating my thought train. 

"Oh yeah?!" Yuqi stomped towards Yves with her fists tightly swinging besides her waist, only to be stopped by Yerim before she could get to her. "These 'kindergarteners' are holding you hostage right now. How's that for pride?!"

"Touche." Yves rolled her eyes, letting her arms fall to her sides. As she sighed, she plopped into Hyejoo’s bed, rubbing her temples. "So what do I have to do for you to let me get out of here?"

All of our stances relaxed a little when we saw the older girl do the same. Heejin let my hand go, allowing me to get a little closer to Yves, with the girls closing in behind me for precaution.

“Why are you and all the girls so mad at me?” I blurted out before anyone else could interrupt me. 

Her face snapped around, her eyes landing on mine. With her mouth slightly hanging open, I could sense genuine surprise in her expression. She blinked a couple of times, shaking her head. Letting an incredulous sigh out of her lips, a taunting smirk appearing on her face.

“Making yourself the victim isn’t going to work this time.” She sneered. “Don’t go thinking I’m going to fall in this game like all of them, I‘m not that naive.”

“I’m not asking you to be my friend.” I declared back, taking a step forward. “You can answer the question and never see my face again if you want.”

“Why would I even help you?” She crossed her arms, taking a defensive stance.

“Maybe because I want to help you back.” My steps halted in place, a safe distance away from Yves. “I know I made some mistakes before, I’m trying to mend them back.”

“Oh, you’re way long past your chance to try and play the hero.” She shook her head, standing up on her feet again, each step taking her closer to the exit door. “Besides, I’m not allowed to talk about the matter, so I don’t think I’m very useful here.”

“Why can’t you talk about it?” Yuqi barged in with a question, making the older girl stop in her tracks. 

“The teacher’s say that if the Master hears us talking about it-”

“Well, the Master does not care about what the teachers say!” My voice filled out every crevice of the room, booming like a thunder had striked inside of the room. All the girls flinched, her eyes landing fearfully on me.

Yves eyes widened, her mouth struggling to find the words to say at the moment. I only had one last resource to get her to talk to me, so I calmed myself down with a deep breath before using my last opportunity.

“You don’t have to do it for us...” My eyes lowered to the floor, as I felt my hands shaking on the sides of my waist. “... but I thought you would do it for Yoohyeon.”

Yves jumped in surprise at the sound of that name. Her hand instinctively raised to cover her hanging jaw. 

“You told me you knew nothing about-”

“I told her.” Hyejoo interrupted, taking some steps forward. “Eden knew nothing about it, neither do any of us.”

“We only have had little pieces to try and pierce together,” Yuqi added. “But it’s not enough.”

“I need to know what I did to her,” I tried taking another step towards Yves, but she flinched back. “So I can help mend it.” 

“It wasn’t only Yoohyeon.” Yves eyes watered, her eyes avoiding mine as she tried hard to contain tears. “There were other girls too.”

“What did I do to them?” 

“What do you mean what did you do to them? Wasn’t I clear enough yesterday?!” Her body gave up on top of Hyejoo’s bed again. Her hands trying to hold her head still. “You punished them for something they weren’t guilty of! You exiled them!”

A collective gasp was heard across the room, all of the puzzle pieces painfully falling into place. My breath sped up as everyone’s eyes falled over me, waiting impatiently for an answer.

“How do I bring them back?” I tried asking in the calmest tone possible, but desperation still managed to get through every word.

“Bring them back? Did you even read the Institutional Decree?” A tear managed to escape one of her eyes as she lashed out against me.

“The what?” A disorderly chorus of every girl asking the same question filled the room. 

“Oh gosh...“ Yves moaned under her breath. Suddenly straightening her back and raising her chin, her pose had a certain strength that the tone in her voice betrayed as false. She continued, her tone straight out of reciting paragraphs from memory. “It’s written in there, act number forty.  _ Exiliation by fire. Whenever an apprentice has rebelled against the institutional norms, defying the internal law for a sufficient amount of occasions, the consequence will be exiliation by fire. The bringer of this repercussion, will suffer intense physical and mental suffering, that equivalent of the accumulation of every sin that led them- _ ”

Yves couldn’t contain herself anymore. Her eyes bursted open with tears, hiding them behind her hands. Hyejoo rushed to her side, just gently putting her hand over her shoulder.

“No,” I shook my head, feeling tears arriving to my eyes too. “That can’t be, I would never-”

“... _ to their own downbringing. _ ” Yves took a deep breath and tried completing what she started, even with her voice cutting down occasionally by her sobs. “ _ This can only be used as a final consequence, considering that this can only be executed by The Master itself. And when completed, not even the highest power can undo it. _ So no Eden, you can’t just bring them back.”

“I- No. I refuse to think…” My mind couldn’t form any coherent thought. The sky outside turned dark, gray clouds covering all the colors of dusk in the horizon. “It can’t be, I would remember it. I would-”

“Their screams of agony asking for help in the middle of the night. I don’t think that’s a sound any of us who had to live that day will ever forget,” She carelessly cleaned her face with the back of her hand, hissing every word at the floor. “Then the teachers drill act forty in your head, day after day reading it every morning, in every class, like it was some kind of accomplishment.”

My knees couldn’t hold my weight any longer, letting me fall to the ground while we let the older girl keep narrating the events of that nightmarish night.

“They locked their rooms, broke every single one of their things, burned all their portraits, erased them from every record, all under your orders. And after all of that, they had the guts to tell us that we didn’t need to live in the shadows of our past,” Yves' speech slowed down, her breathing evening. “That we shouldn’t be mentioning this incident again. But you know them, they manage to make even the most comforting thing sound like a threat.”

Her eyes searched for mine, and I couldn’t take the sight of them. I had never seen that amount of misery and horror coming from someone’s gaze. But knowing that I was that the reason behind it all, it broke me down to the deepest cracks in my now mortal soul. An endless stream of tears holding my whole body down. 

Then looked up, all the girls glaring back at me with varying degrees of concern, sadness or even fear in their eyes, and for the first time in my entire stay, not even Yerim looked to be on my side.

“I would never do anything like that to any of you girls,” I sobbed, my chest barely holding the necessary strength to keep talking. “Please...”

There was a deafening silence crushing me against the floor, not letting me move at all. 

“Could you blame me? Or anyone really?” Yves stood from the bed, walking towards the exit. “We wanted to think you were on our side. We really did.”

She opened the door with no one keeping her back this time and disappeared behind it. The door slammed on itself, letting the silence return to the room. I tried saying something, anything to the girls surrounding me, but not a lot of words could come out of my mouth.

“I’m so sorry-”

“Oh, don’t apologise to us,” Ryujin started. I didn’t understand her tone, but it didn’t sound as warm and welcoming as before. “You haven’t done anything to us, but I don’t know if there’s a way of apologizing to them.”

“I can try to bring them back…” I carefully stood up, the pain in my head coming back stronger this time. “I will try.”

“The act said that not even the highest power can undo its consequences,” Ryujin continued, distantly analyzing the situation. “You don’t even have your normal powers back, what makes you think that you could-”

“I think there might be a silver lining in all of it.” Yuqi barged in with the controversial alternative. Her eyes looked around, realizing she had every pair of them invested enough, she decided to continue. “Lately I’ve learnt to take everything that the Teachers say with a grain of salt. We’ve seen them misinterpret Eden’s powers with wrong meanings…”

“Maybe it happened back then too.” Heejin added, her face twitching while different ideas connected in her brain. “And since the Master is the only one capable of exiling people, if Eden didn’t do it-”

“They could still be around...” My face lit up, as I felt heat coming back to my body. “We just have to find them.”

A hopeful silence filled the room, the clouds on the outside finally dispersing to reveal the last minutes of dusk on the other side. I cleaned the last teardrops off my face, trying to offer them the ghost of a smile on my face.

“The problem is they could be anywhere,” I sighed, tired. “I don’t know where we can start looking for them.”

“I do.” Yerim finally talked but not with her usual cheery tone. She took a step forward intuitively trying to reach for me, but she stopped her steps a few feet back before coming closer. “Yves unnie said that they had locked their rooms. Maybe that weird door in Dorm one was one of them.”

“Yerim you’re a genius, I knew I hung out with you for a reason.” Yuqi’s personality started relaxing a little more, bringing a little more peace into mine. ”I don’t think they would have locked it if it didn’t have anything important inside, it’s a good place to start looking.”

My chest widened with a warm breath that filled my lungs. I knew they weren’t looking at me with the same eyes as before, but they didn’t give up on me that easily. I felt tears coming back to my eyes, but this time for a completely different reason, that I couldn’t be more grateful for having them here with me.

“I don’t want to be the one always sounding negative but,” Hyejoo locked her eyes on mine while she sat on the edge of her bed. “But what if we don’t find them and it turns out you really… exiled them?”

“I couldn’t bring myself into causing any more trouble. So if that turns out to be the truth…” I sighed, closing my eyes as I tensed my body, my decision being made. “I’m leaving the Promised Land for good.”

  
  



	7. The Crown of Rejoicing, Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Deciding to prove her innocence, Eden won’t stop at anything or anyone in her way to get the answers that she needs, opening a whole new world of questions to be asked.

I glared at the sun as it hid behind the horizon. My leg bounced against the mattress while my hands clenched at the bed sheets hanging on the edge. It was killing me to have to act like everything was fine for an entire day, not even sure if it was going to be my last.

I know it was hard for the girls too. Every single one of the words coming out of their mouth towards me full of doubt, not sure if they were talking to an innocent being or potentially a ruthless murderer. 

It too was eating me on the inside not to know which one of them I was either. 

As the night fell upon us, the room darkened with the skies. While my eyes kept unmoved, glaring at the window in front of me, I listened to Hyejoo’s steps walking across the tile floor in the room. Her steps halted, just to be followed by the familiar click of the lantern that hung near the entrance to our room. A delicate warm light brightened the room, allowing me to stare now at my motionless silhouette.

“Eden?” Hyejoo’s unexpected call made me jump awake from my trance, as my eyes groggily turned to face her. “Oh good, you’re still alive.”

“What?” I furrowed my eyebrows at her, bringing my knees up the bed and surrounding them with my arms.

“You haven’t moved from that spot since we came back from dinner.” She sat at the foot of my bed, still keeping a fair precautionary distance. 

“What else am I supposed to do Hyejoo?” I buried my head between my knees, my eyes going back to the window. “It is not everyday that you have to deal with the news that you might be a tyrannical murderer.”

“I’m not good at this feel-good stuff so cut me some slack,” She scoffed back, apparently not taking in the gravity of the situation. “Look Eden, you don’t look like a murderer to me, and I’m sure the others think the same.”

Her words caught my attention enough, making me turn my entire body to face her. She took this as a cue to keep up her speech, taking a deep breath that could visibly tell me the nervousness in her body.

“I don’t know. It’s pretty easy for me to separate Eden from The Master.” She continued, fumbling a little through her words. “It’s just that there’s such a big difference between you and everything that the Teachers and the older girls tell us that The Master is.”

“What do they say about me?” I raised my head, intrigued.

“To sum it up, they paint you as this powerful vigilante, who only puts order and discipline over everything else. Never to talk bad of you, make you mad or disrespect you in any way.  _ Or dire consequences will follow. _ ” She scoffed the last part, shaking her head. “You can guess why I was so scared of the idea of The Master.”

“They do make me look… a little bad.”

“But then you, Eden, drop here so suddenly,” She turned to face me, a light smile fighting to appear over her lips. “It was hard for me to believe you really were The Master at first cause you have been the perfect example of everything that they’ve told me that The Master was against.”

“Tha- Thanks?” My mind didn’t really understand how to take that last statement.

“You’re welcome.” She lingered into an affiliative smile, nodding pleasingly to herself.

The silence again fell in the room, this time lighter on my shoulders than before. I couldn’t resist, but a mild smirk formed on my lips, which I hid behind my arms as I stared back at the stars across the window. The door pushing open made us both turn around to take a glimpse at our visitors. The sight of the blue and brunette manes of Heejin and Ryujin peeking their heads inside was a little bit comical, but I restrained a chuckle from coming out, unsure on how they would take it.

“We should go,” Ryujin mumbled, her voice trembling, unsure of the tone that she wanted to use in the situation. “Yerim and Yuqi said they’d wait for us at dorm one.”

Without saying a word, both Hyejoo and I stood from the bed, grabbing up our coats on the way out. Heejin opened the door completely to let us through, the moon hovering above the skylight welcoming us with its icy light over our faces.

I led us down the stairs as I slipped into another layer of clothes, ready to receive the cold wind that howled outside the dorm. With only the echoes of our steps filling the broad room, we gathered around the main dorm door, as I rested my hand on the knob.

“Are you ready?” I whispered to the girls, scanning their faces. Both Ryujin and Heejin nodded confidently, and Hyejoo just looked around, shrugging with her arms. “Well, let’s g-”

I tried turning the knob around, only for it to get stuck halfway. I tried again, harder this time. The door kept refusing to open under my touch, continuing my attempts in a more desperate way, both my hands grasping the nob desperately.

“Eden!” Hyejoo yanked me away from the door, pushing me against and down the wall.

Both Heejin and Ryujin followed, far against another wall. In my distress, I ignored the tall dark shadow approaching the dorm. It’s stance menacingly hovering over the window that faced inside the dorm.

His slicked blonde hair, and sharp features in his face couldn’t be mistaken. Mr. Azrael stood glaring at the window, scanning inside the room for the person trying to come out. The four of us standing solidly against the walls that we begged that he wasn't able to see.

An eternity passed and he finally moved away, continuing his path.

“Unbelievable,” I scoffed, detaching myself from the wall. “Now they lock the doors? Since when?”

“Hard to know,” Heejin shook her head, walking towards us. “it’s been a while since we sneaked out.”

“They must know or suspect something by now.” Hyejoo added.

“There must be another way out!” I sprinted towards the center of the room, my eyes scanning around the room for a possible way out. Glaring back at the window that faced the outside halls gave me an idea. “Let’s go, we can’t waste much time.”

“Where do you think you are going?...” A fifth voice disclosed from the shadows, confused, hurt. Ryujin, Heejin, Hyejoo and I felt our soul leave our body as our eyes tried looking for the owner. Steps could be heard closing in on us as a silhouette emerged from the shadows. “...without me?”

“Sana?” I recognized the voice immediately, turning back to watch her eyes looking around for an explanation. “What are you doing out so late?”

“Shouldn’t I be asking the same to you?” She was wrapping a warm cape around her body, her eyes scanning me up and down.

“I didn’t think you would like to come-”

“I wouldn’t know If you didn’t tell me.” She slumped in her place. Her eyes staring directly at mine.

My body released a big sigh accompanied by my eyes slowly blinking, trying to find any sense in the situation as the other part of my brain tried hard to find a way to get to dorm one.

“Hey,” I turned, pointing to Ryujin and Heejin, who perked up at the call. Hyejoo glared at me, ready to jump into action too. “Can you please wait for me in your room? I’ll be there in a minute.”

The three girls didn’t hesitate a second to leave the lounge, rushing their steps towards the room in the lower floor. Sana and I were left alone, staring at each other under the dark blue hue that brightened the room. 

Her fingers reached for my cheek, gently caressing it. I closed my eyes, letting myself get eased by her touch, my hand reaching up to stop her before I could forget what I really wanted to ask her.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I cut through the silence like a knife, her tender actions halting at the aggressive natured question.

“Not tell you what?” Her face twitched in genuine confusion, her hand dropping on her side, away from me.

“About my past, my reputation,” I my throat swallowed my words as they struggled to get out. “What I allegedly did to those poor girls.”

A gasp came out of her lips, her hand rushing to cover her mouth as her eyes rounded in surprise. She shook her head, her shoulders dropping as she threw her head back.

“You’re going to go and try to save them,” She glared at me. “Don’t you?”

“You know I won’t sleep well until I at least try”

“That’s precisely why I didn’t want to tell you.” She took a step closer to me, her hands landing on my hips. “All this Master stuff is driving you insane, where’s the free-spirited, fun and curious Eden? The one that promised me we would do this together?”

“She’s not gone, Sana.” Now it was my turn to cup her cheeks with my hands, raising her head to meet mine. “But I can’t deny my duty with all of you as The Master either.”

“But would it kill you if you did?” She whimpered. “Would it kill you if you just tried enjoying life as one of us? Would it kill you to, for once, just drop all that weight off your shoulders?”

“Sana-”

“Would it kill you not to be an omnipotent deity for a day and to be just our friend? Live without throwing yourself into every conflict and desperately try to solve it?” Her eyes glistened, her voice starting to break.

“You were the one that called me down, the one that wanted the answers in the first place,” I shook my head, trying to take all of it at once. “I thought that if I mended this-”

“I don’t care about the past!” She interrupted, taking in a deep breath. 

“Oh, but you care,” I cut her up, “You just keep trying to ignore it.”

Her eyes locked on mine, agitated. Her lips parted open, but no sound came from them. Her hands dropped from my sides, rushing to wrap the blanket around her tightly.

“We all make mistakes,” I caressed her cheek for what could be one last time before turning my feet to the back of the lounge. “I’m just trying to mend mine back.”

I watched her static silhouette as I moved farther from her. Her shoulders shrinked as she offered me one last glance for the night.

“Be careful,” I managed to hear her whisper into the nothing standing in front of her, “Please.”

I turned around, rushing towards Ryujin and Heejin’s room. My steps bouncing off the walls of the solitary lounge. Or at least I thought. I caught the sound of another person, tramples closing in on mine. It couldn’t be Sana’s, her walk sounded more delicate, and I for sure heard her room door close not long after her whisper. With the only obvious suspect out of the way, I halted my steps, spinning in my own place to catch a glimpse of this person.

“Why are you in such a rush?” Yves' voice filled my ears as she revealed herself under the moonlight. “Just go sleep already, it’s past your bedtime.”

“What are you doing here?” I snapped back at her. 

“I don’t have the pleasure of knowing you intimately for a long time, but that time was enough to know that whenever you and your silly squad are up so late at night, nothing good happens, and I came here to stop you from whatever brainless thing you’re planning to do now.” Yves crossed her arms, her eyebrow rising defiantly. “My turn, what are YOU doing out here?”

“I’m going to save Yoohyeon,” I used the name sparingly, knowing Yves had a sensitive nerve I could hit whenever I needed her to ease on me. “And the rest of the girls too.”

“Wasn’t I clear enough last time? An exile by fire is not precisely reversible.” She scoffed, the clear challenge bleeding through her tone rattled something inside me, not in a good way. She wasn’t taking me seriously, but I was going to make her. “But I would love to see you try.”

“Great! Then you’re coming with me.” 

I took her by the wrist, pulling her with me as I reached for the room’s handle and aggressively opened it. The girls inside the room spring up from their bed in surprise as I barged in with a new member to our ordeal. The door swung close behind me, leaving the other three girls perplexed at the sight in front of them.

“Why are all of you here?” Yves snapped out of my hold, rubbing her wrist.

“Because it’s…” Ryujin stammered her words, her eyes squinting at the question as she alternated her between Heejin and Yves. “Because it’s our room?”

“Are you telling me that she’s coming with us?” Hyejoo mumbled under her breath, shrinking her shoulders.

“She said she would love to!” I threw my hands into the air, exaggerating the gesture.

“I didn’t-”

“Welcome to the ‘silly squad’ Yves!” I rushed towards the window that faced the gardens, opening the panels towards the outside. A hard and cold breeze barged into the room. “I hope you make yourself at home.”

Without thinking too much, I planted my hands into the edge of the window, taking impulse to jump on top of it. The wind blew hard against my body as I stood at the top of the rim, carefully measuring the way down.

“Wait, are you serious?” Yves rushed to the window, making me face the inside of the room. “But I thought that you were-”

“Joking?” I muttered. “Look, you don’t really have to follow me if you don’t want to, but I’m going to find the truth about what happened that night. And you are not going to stop me.”

I jumped down the window into the other side, hearing the collective gasp of the girls still inside the building. Landing on top of my feet, I stabilized myself against the wall, before standing tall into the window. They all sighed in relief when my head peaked up, the rim of the window exactly at my chin level.

“Actually all of you need to stay here,” I whispered to them, offering them an affirmative smile. “I’m really thankful for everything you’ve done for me, but… this time it’s all too dangerous and I don’t want to put any of you at risk.”

“Quit that nonsense,” Ryujin scoffed at me, she jumped on top of the window and down to my side in an incredibly brisk way. “We said we’d do this together, I’m going.”

“Don’t go thinking you two can get rid of me easily.” Heejin was the next to climb up the window and jump down with us. She shook her clothes after landing, offering us a playful smirk back. 

Their assertive attitudes brought out a tender smile over my lips, as we all looked up at the other two girls still staring down through the window.

“Ah, whatever. I didn’t stay awake all this time just to chicken up at the last minute.” Hyejoo scoffed as she carefully climbed the window rim, not throwing her entire body down but hanging from the window until her feet touched the ground.

The four of us out there then turned at Yves, who hovered hesitantly over the window. We let a few seconds go by, letting her take her decision in silence, but time was ticking against us and we didn’t have the whole night to wait for her.

“So?” I approached the window, resting my chin over my hands. 

“Fine, but I’m doing this for them.” She shrugged, insecurly climbing up. “I can’t believe I’m doing this, gosh.”

I took a step back, leaving her space to land before us. She prepared herself to jump out the window, but one of her feet got stuck with the window’s framework, fumbling her way down the fall. Hyejoo and I rushed to catch her before she thumped on the grass below us, with just a few seconds to spare. Her breathing accelerated as her face dangled inches away from hitting the floor. We helped her back her feet, as she jerked away from our support.

“That’s exactly how it was planned to go.” She shook her clothes, evening her breath. “It was a… trust test.”

We all nodded, skeptic of the words coming out of the older girl. I shut the window, not closed but with an opening narrow enough to open it from the outside if needed.

“Stick to the wall, lay your heads low when nearing windows,” I explained in a whisper, all the girl’s eyes alert to my every word. “And don’t make any noise. Follow me.”

I started leading them to one side, with our backs following the walls of the building, only the sounds of the night and our very muted steps over the grass filled the air. I chose the shortest route trying to cut time in getting over to dorm one, realizing a little late about a little detail missing.

“Shh!” I halted my steps, making the girls gasp as a reaction. “Ah, crap.”

We had to cross towards the other side of a giant set of glass doors that lead from the garden through the dorm corridors. It wouldn’t normally be a problem, except that, with a quick glance at them, I recognized the tall and blinding figure of Mr. Azrael roaming the hall inside. 

“We could go through the other side,” Ryujin suggested. “Surrounding the building.”

“That’s way too much time wasted.” I sighed, shaking my head. “We’ll just have to make a run for it.”

“What?!” The four girls widened their eyes at me, asking in unison. 

“I’ll tell you to run when they turn around,” I instructed, turning around and peaking my head to get a better view. “Wait for me on the other side.”

“Oh gosh,” Yves sighed, shaking her head. “We’re so dea-”

“Now!” 

Ryujin grabbed Yves by the wrist, dragging her across the garden as she struggled to keep her feet in balance until they got to the other side of the building, both of them safe. Hyejoo and Heejin were ready to make their run when Mr. Azrael suddenly turned to face the garden again. I stretched my hand, stopping their steps.

He marched in his normal pattern, his slow pace going up and down the hall rattling my nerves impatient. He looked out the window for his usual five seconds, before turning into facing the inside of the building. 

“Now you two! Go!” Hyejoo and Heejin made their run across the garden swiftly, arriving safely at the other side.

I was preparing to make my run, when Mr. Azrael made an aggressive turn towards the garden again. His eyes furrowed towards the outside. He must have heard something if he didn’t even finish his walk down the hall and returned. 

I felt my palms shaking, as I raised one hand to the girls on the other side. They nodded accordingly, crouching down to wait. Mr. Azrael stood staring at the outside for what felt like forever, each second passing making my breath accelerate even more. He finally turned around, and I didn’t wait a second to make my sprint across the garden. Big mistake.

Almost like if time had slowed, my eyes caught over my shoulder as he turned around in the middle of my sprint, but at this point it was too much of a risk to stop or go back. He slammed his hands against the glass panel, just as I made a jump to the safety of the wall on the other side.

My feet didn’t touch ground accordingly, and the impulse caused me to land over my shoulder, making me roll over the grass. The girls rushed to me, when the sudden noise of the glass door slamming open filled the air.

Petrified, we begged that the darkness of the night was enough for our cover, as the heavy steps over the concrete paths of the garden closed on to us. Exactly when I sensed Mr. Azrael standing right behind us, the noise halted. 

A sudden rustle in the bushes on the other side caught our attention. But as we all turned to watch the source, we caught the sight of a familiar springy and fluffy orange tail coming out of the greens and making a run away from the building. 

Followed by what sounded like the swing of a sword, a bolt of purple lightning crossed the garden towards the fox running away from it, thankfully missing it completely. The fox was fast to hide himself amongst the woods surrounding the building, as the steps of Mr. Azrael were farther and farther away. 

We heard the glass doors close again, and a alleviated sigh escaped from all of our mouths, letting our bodies relax.

“C’mon,” I stood up, removing the dirt off my clothes. “We’re almost there.”

“What was that?” Yves mumbled, her eyes still as wide as the moon standing above us.

“Ah, our friend the fox,” I responded nonchalantly, turning my attention to Heejin and Ryujin. “Didn’t know he was around, remind me to thank him for that next time.”

“You have a- what?” The older girl shut her eyes, rubbing her temples with her hands.

“Yves, I swear that if we get out of this one alive, we’ll explain everything to you later.” Ryujin playfully hit her shoulder. “We need to move.”

I nodded, signing them to follow me again. With our backs stuck to the walls once again and no more perceivable danger around, me moved swiftly surrounding the building of dorm two, finally arriving at our destiny, dorm one.

My head carefully peaked into every window to be sure I knocked into the correct one, all of them dark on the inside, the girls sleeping inside barely perceivable. Until one I got to one window that emitted the warm light of a lit lantern. Peeking inside, I managed to recognize Yerim’s brunette mane and Yuqi’s rebellious curls, laying awake over the beds. 

I knocked gently on the glass, making both the girls jump to their feet in surprise. As soon as Yerim recognized my face peeping from the outside, she rushed to the window, her jaw hanging open.

“Eden are you crazy?!” Yerim opened half the panel of the window as she stammered her words.

“I thought that was a given?” I heard Yuqi’s voice behind her, approaching fast.

“There are doors for a reason!” Yerim laughed incredulously.

“Yeah well, what was I supposed to tell Mr. Azrael as he stood literally in front of our door?!” My knees started hurting from crouching so much throughout the journey. “That I lost my way to the bathroom?”

“You’re going to get in so much trouble for this!”

“Only if we get caught-”

“We?” Yerim peeked out of the window, getting greeted by the alarmed and terrified faces of Heejin, Ryujin, Hyejoo and Yves behind me, their backs sticking to the wall like their lives depended on it. Her eyes bolted back to me, her mouth gaping, welcoming in her voice a mix of irritation and disbelief. “Eden!”

“They insisted!” I defended myself, “Please just let us in!”

Yerim and Yuqi quickly opened the entire window and stepped back. In a swift move, I jumped to have my arms hanging from the window, both the girls helped me up and inside the room, landing over my two feet. I turned around to help the other girls, one by one climbing into Yerim’s room.

Once everyone was inside, I roamed around their bedroom, grabbing from a desk a lit lamp and heading back to the other girls who just followed my every step with their eyes.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Yves questioned the whole ordeal while I tried organizing my thoughts.

“If you want my complete honesty? Maybe it isn’t.” I answered back with a sigh. “But I think it’s already a bit too late to question it.”

“And what if someone sees us?” Yves continued voicing her concerns out loud.

“Yerim and I are mostly the only ones staying so late in this dorm all the time.” Yuqi scoffed. “Kim Lip Unnie naggs everyone into going to bed early, so that’s not a concern.”

“And what if-”

“We’ll just figure it out on the way.” Ryujin interrupted impatiently, taking the lamp from my hands and turning towards the exit. “Let’s go.”

We turned to Ryujin as she led the group into the door. 

“How come they haven’t caught them yet?” Yves turned to Hyejoo, but I managed to catch the whispers. “Have they always been like this?”

“As far as I know,” Hyejoo whispered back, chuckling lightly. “Yeah.”

I heard their footsteps closing on mine, as Yerim gently turned the knob to let us out. The silence of the lounge welcomed us as a blue hue coming from the skylight illuminated the empty couches and the dark wooden columns before us. It rested over the white walls, painting them in a sky blue light that emanated tranquility to the entire room.

My mind got lost in a flashback of its own. My first day on the Promised Land, this was the dorm I got dragged into by Yerim, Mina and Yeji. Here’s where I met Heejin and Sana for the first time too. I felt a shiver travel down my spine at the thought of the latter girl. I remember her thumb over my hand, as I tried to decipher why her voice sounded so familiar to me as her sweet eyes scanned me with the softest warmth before everything started going downhill. 

And like playing an evil trick on myself, my brain turned that image around, transforming it in Sana’s desperate and obscured eyes that called in silent screams to mine, earlier in our dorm. On how I preferred turning around and leaving before having to confront her face to face. 

I shook my head to try and get rid of that image inside of me, reality welcoming me back with a cold brush of the air against my skin, causing the hair in my arms to spring up. Going up the last stairs, Ryujin and Yerim already awaited in front of the mysterious door, raising the lantern up to the stained copper plaque that hung from this old nail at the center of it.

“Do not enter.” Ryujin read the plaque out loud, mumbling only for us to hear. Her hand with the lantern hovered over every inch of the door, a purple mist radiating out of every slit in the wood. “Can’t get any more ominous than this, huh?”

We all gathered surrounding the door, hesitant towards our next move. My hand reached for the handle before halting a few inches away from it.

“On my first day, Yeji told me that touching this handle hurts…” I whispered, “She didn’t let me get to it.”

“It burns. But, not because it’s hot. It’s like being burnt with extremely cold ice. It paralyzes your entire hand and arm at contact. Like if it freezes you. I couldn’t use my hand for two weeks without it hurting.” Yuqi was quick to respond, one of her hands holding the other close to her chest. She gathered all the concerned glances and noticed as she looked up, sighing before explaining herself. “You know me, you can’t blame me for trying to open it once. Nobody else tried to do it after that.”

“So we’re just fine with letting Eden do this after hearing that?” Hyejoo barged in, distressed.

“Not Eden,” I exhaled, clearing my throat. “But maybe the Master can.”

Not taking a second to think about it too much, my hand grasped the knob. An ice cold bolt shot all the way from my arm to my head, clouding my sight. I felt the skin in my hand become stiff, fragile and glass like. Any miniscule movement could make my entire arm shatter in a million pieces. A light whimper managed to escape from my lips, giving away the pain I was in.

“Let it go!” Ryujin commanded. I stared at my hand, insistent on not taking it away as long as I could manage. “Eden, let it go!”

A blinding white smoke started emanating from my hand, an instant warmth covering it. Fighting against the immeasurable cold radiating from the handle, the metal started cracking in response. I sensed mobility coming back to my fingers as the white smoke covered the entire handle, quickly spreading throughout the entire door. 

It wasn’t until the entire wooden panel was wrapped up in this white smoke that I felt a little strength coming back to my body. I used what little impulse I gathered to turn the knob, launching myself against the door shoulder first. 

The door gave in immediately, a gust of dusty wind pushing me back. I tripped backwards with my own feet, Yerim and Hyejoo catching me in their arms and helping me back up. Heejin was quick to grab my arm and gently raise it up to her eyes, checking my hand diligently. 

My entire body was still shaking, the palm of my hand was covered in blisters that kept emanating a white mist that seemed to try and heal them. Heejin gently caressed them with the tip of her fingers, resulting in a gasp as another bolt of cold shot through my body. She jerked her hand away, her eyes landing apologetic over mine.

“It’s okay,” I tried to calm her down, softly nodding. “I’m fine.”

“No you’re not.” She squinted her eyes at me, “Look at your hand.”

“I know, I know.” I sighed “But I didn’t come all this way to stop here.”

“Here,” Yerim undid the strip of fabric around her waist, carefully wrapping it around my hand. The first touches of the cloth caused my body to tremble, slowly getting used to the feeling until I had my entire hand covered and safe. “That should help at least for now.”

I nodded gratefully at Yerim, walking back to the door. I took a deep breath that shook me through my core, letting it all out in a dramatic gasp. I used my other hand to push the door even further in, letting a soft purple glare inundate my sight as I took my first steps inside.

After a few blindly taken steps, I halted my movement, letting my eyes adjust to the dark room. I heard the cascade of muted steps following close behind me as we tried to take in our surroundings.

In its core, the room looked like any other in the dorms. Two canopy beds at opposite sides, facing each other, the cold white tiles and white paint of the walls covering it from corner to corner. But opposite from what Yves told us to expect last night, the rooms were full of clutter, like if someone had been living there all this time.

“I don’t get it,” Yves walked more urgently than the rest of us, her eyes undecided on where to land. “They told us they got rid of everything-”

“I told you they lied,” Yuqi’s voice was hostile and triumphant at the same time. “If there really was nothing, there would be no point in hiding it.”

All of us stood there for a second, trying to figure out where to start looking. I approached a desk that stood in front of me, towers of books and personal stuff over it. Shelves were staggering of other items, as a thread hung below them, with pictures of girls I had never seen before. 

“I don’t think we should be touching any of this stuff.” My eyes scanned around. Various objects seemed to emanate this gloomy purple smoke out of it, a clear sign of the teacher’s magic still pretty present in the room. “It could be under a spell too.”

“I’m glad to know that we just came all the way here, risking out guts outside just to stare at stuff.” Yves sighed heavily. “Exciting.”

“Oh, so now you want to do something about it?” I snapped back. 

“Before you two start choking each other,” Ryujin’s voice intruded from the other side of the room. “Come look at this.”

Her eyes were fixed at the disheveled sheets over one of the beds, as if tugged from one particular direction. Ryujin didn’t even need to say much, her finger pointed at the direction that the sheet seemed to be pulled from, leaving a path of books and personal items thrown all across the floor.

“Wait, I know some of these,” Yves gasped, squatting down to scan closer some of the stuff on the floor. She pointed at a necklace tossed in the middle of the disaster. “they’re Yoohyeon”

“Seems like they left in a rush.” Yerim remarked. 

“Not in a rush,” Yuqi’s voice trembled from the other side of the room. “They were forced to leave.”

All the eyes turned to face her from every side, her finger pointing at fabric straps scattered all over the other bed, seemingly part of a dress. 

The mess in the room suddenly made much more sense, but it was not a point in my favor. Before I could have to deal with all the looks of the girls coming back to me stating the obvious, I lowered my sight to the path of destruction that Ryujin pointed at earlier following its course with my eyes.

As silence reigned in the room and the other girls moved on into searching for more evidence, the path ultimately led me into the feet of a plain panel clothed with a giant sheet. As my eyes scanned their way up, realizing it was way taller than I envisioned at first, maybe a head or two above me. I felt a figure standing by my side, equally stunned at the height of whatever that was standing in front of us. 

I identified Heejin’s hand getting closer to the sheet covering it, as I caught it with mine before she could get to it.

“Don’t-” I whispered. She snapped her head at me, her eyes scanning my entire face before locking on mine. 

“Maybe it could help us,” She blurted back. My hand eased its grip over hers, our eyes not breaking their glance. “I’ve been your friend for a while, don’t tell me now you’re worried about consequences.”

“Then let me do it.” My able hand went forward but was immediately brought back by Heejin. “Heejin please-”

“You did your part Eden,” She reprimanded me, not sparing a breath of air. “Let us help you now, okay?”

“Just be careful…” I mumbled, unable to answer with a good comeback.

And as we both turned our attention to the front, her hand gently groped the sheet, her body hesitating, anticipating a consequence. Only the steps of the other girls across the room and our heavy breaths filled the air surrounding us, as the purple mist dissipated away from the sheet. 

She took a deep and shaky breath, her free hand searching for my well one in confort. As I intertwined my fingers with hers, she planted her feet firmly on the floor before aggressively tugging the sheet away from the panel. 

Surprisingly light, the sound of the huge cloth called the other girls to approach as it kept falling gracefully against the death air of the room, landing at our feet.

“It’s just a mirror” Hyejoo’s voice implied disappointingly.

My ears were filled with the displeased sighs of the girls around us, as they turned around to keep with their search. I tried heading the other way, just to remember my hand was still intertwined with Heejin as she tugged me back to her with incredible force.

“Do you hear them?” She whispered to me. “The screams?” 

“I have heard voices in front of every mirror,” I sighed. “I don’t think this is any diff-”

“Shhh!” She placed her hand over my mouth, before stepping closer to her reflection in the object. “They’re not just voices, I mean it when I say screams.”

Giving her the benefit of the doubt, I remained in silence, staring directly at my reflection. The usual whispers started filling my mind, like if someone was directly whispering them in my ears. And they were getting louder and louder, closer and closer. I felt a cold shiver travel through my spine, my head shaking as the whispers turned into whines of pain, and then finally into screams. 

I jumped startled covering my ears, the noise stopping completely when I broke contact with my reflection. My breath starting accelerating as I tried to shake the feeling off my head. Just in time, I looked up to catch a glimpse Heejin’s hand going through the mirror, like if it was made of water. She pulled her hand back quickly enough, staring at it in wonder. My eyes widened at the sight, gasping loud enough to bring back everyone’s attention to the mirror. 

Heejin took another step towards the mirror, this time almost fully entering into the mirror itself when I launched towards her in a desperate motion.

“Wait!” I reached for her hand before she could fully go inside. “What do you think you’re doing?!”

“I’m gonna go search for them!” She responded.

“Are you going crazy?” I tried pulling her back but she refused to let herself back up. “We don’t even know what’s behind it!” 

“And we’re not going to know if we don’t dare to look!” She raised her face to watch at all the girls now surrounding us, her face furrowing at the hesitation in the room. “They could be in there and we can save them from-”

“I DON’T WANT YOU TO GET HURT HEEJIN!” I exploded, the only sound in the room being my agitated breath. I cleared my throat, evening my breath before talking again with a knot in my throat. “I don't want anyone to get hurt… not because of me. Not again.”

“Come with me” She locked her eyes on mine once more, glowing as her face softened. “We could at least try.”

“Why are you doing this?” 

“Cause I want to believe you Eden,” Her eyes glistened, her tone coming out as tender as it could. “I don’t want to see you go.”

I had no words to offer back to her, her tender smile caught me off guard, making me soften my grip on her. She didn’t hesitate a second before launching herself inside the mirror, in which a tiny crack appeared as soon as she disappeared completely from my sight. 

“HEEJIN!” I launched myself behind her, barely listening to the gasps of the rest of the girls behind me, completely shutting down their gasps with the sheer filling of having crossed a cold water curtain. 

My entire body collapsed over a cold and hard surface. The damp smell of concrete and musty air filled my senses right when a pair of hands grabbed my face in between them. I jerked away, now fully in my five senses. The cold bolts coming from my hand intensified with each harsh movement, but against the dim light of the room, my eyes managed to recognize Heejin, safe and sound. As an instinct, my arms bolted to surround her shoulders, holding her close to me.

“Don’t you dare scare me like that again!” I complained in her ear, her arms surrounding my waist as she rested her chin on my shoulder. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” She whispered only to me. “Now we need to-”

A loud shriek echoed beside us, with a deep thump following, indicating the arrival of someone else the same way that we did. We quickly turned to the noise, the deep grunts complaining at the rough entrance.

“Ugh, the things I do for you…” Yves' voice was unmistakable. Heejin and I rushed to help her get up from the harsh floor. She painfully managed to get to her feet, checking her body for bruises.

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to.” I snapped back at her as she dusted herself up from the floor. 

“You know what? You’re right.” She grunted. “I’m just going to go back and leave you two here alone, how about that?”

“Go back?” I sneered “I would like to see you try!”

“Would you two stop that?!” Heejin interrupted our bickering, pulling our bodies apart. “We need to stick together to keep us safe, and if something is going to kill us here, I would rather not have your quarrel be the last thing I listen to!”

Both me and Yves nodded frantically at the younger girl, before we tried scanning our surroundings. The obscureness made it almost impossible to see more than a few feet away from our place, a deafening silence crushing the three of us. 

The air managed to smell both humid and freshly burnt, like the smell of ashes after a heavy rain killed a fire. I took a step forward, the low heel of my shoe echoing endlessly in the walls surrounding us. The place sounded empty, making us feel as we were almost standing in the middle of nowhere. 

I dared walking forward, and ventured a little more into our surroundings, not pulling apart from Heejin and Yves more than some feet away. I kept my abled hand in front of my body in case I encountered any wall moving forward, to avoid crashing face first into it. 

I kept walking, the other two girls following closely behind with the same motions, until suddenly my hand brushed against the chipped texture of wood, leaving a dark dust on my fingertips. I let my fingers roam around the wooden plank for a little more, recognizing every crevice and ornament over it, letting it cover my entire palm on this black dust covering it.

“It’s a door!” My hand brushed against the freezing handle, grabbing it tightly. I turned it around, but it was firmly stuck in it’s own frame. The other two girls rushed to help me get it open. We tried both pushing and pulling it, but it didn’t seem to cave into our efforts.

“Move!” I heard Heejin shout as Yves pulled me far from the door. With only a kick from her, the door didn’t swing open, but the entire piece of wood that contained the handle broke into a hundred pieces.

“How did-” My jaw hung in awe at the girl before me.

“I found a book about ‘working out’ once and it seemed fun.” She answered nonchalantly. “I think it’s paying off!”

I nodded impressed as Yves rushed to get the door open. It was still incredibly heavy, but once the three of us pushed it together, it gave in and finally started to move.

A little more light started peaking into the room through the creak of the door when the opening was enough for us to go through it. The gasps coming out of the two other girls did not prepare me enough for what my eyes caught once I was able to see it.

The glass skylight shattered in a million pieces, scattered over the floor below us, letting the faded moonlight grace the few places it landed on. Moss was growing out of every crevice and column above us, as some piece of nature from the outside reclaimed the space for themselves crossing windows and holes in the stone-made walls. Some of the other rooms had their doors completely or partially burnt out, and if what we thought lied behind the huge wooden door at the end of the lounge was correct, then the view before us was completely clear. 

“Is this…?” Heejin trembled. “Another Promised Land?”

A thin ray of moonlight landed over my hand, finally letting me stare at the dark dust coating my hands. Coal-black ash managed to land all over my hands and upper body, the white dress being an obvious victim of the cinder covering the air.

“It was.”


End file.
